Internship for Dummies
To become a doctor, you spend four and a half years of your tiny life in the medical school. When you start, you have that spark, the will to excel, you (and your parents) are on cloud 9. I have seen a junior ask a senior, with all the seriousness on his face, “Sir, Top karne ke liye kitna padhna padta hai?” And then the dream shatters. You have incoming missiles by the name of Anatomy, Biochemistry and Physiology. And as you succeed to dodge one lot, an even deadlier one is headed your way. And when you somehow manage to survive this brutal massacre, you enter into this new world where you are no longer supposed to remember complex names but learn the process to make the patient healthy. And this is different from anything that you have done before or seen...
Community time!
3 more months and I have (sorta) completed my PSM posting. PSM, the Preventive and Social Medicine… what it did for me was it prevented me from socialising at all! For starters, we were locked away in ‘jails’ about 25 kms from sevagram. A dirty room with a motheaten bed, crappy food, no source of entertainment what so ever and to make things worse, notthing to do.We would sit in ‘Kiran Clinics’ from sharp 8 to 1 and see 3 patients. One of them with nonspecific body pain and has come to get his free aspirin refill that he has been taking since the last 20 years. If I distill the aspirin out of his blood, I might have enough to have a major pharma company running for their money! The second, an old lady, had an unique...
Medicinal Blues… and the other colours!
It’s been 3+ months since I have joined my internship. And I have finished my medicine posting. I started off with my ward postings. My job discription – Drawing blood, filling out forms, making entries, and grossly doing anything nobody else wants to do! But the Verdict – Fun! (most of the times)When I started, I was scared. I will actually be involved in actual patient care. What I do will matter. And if I don’t exist, the system feels a hollow! That is a great responsibility on my shoulders. Then you start pricking patients and drawing blood right, left and center. And that very disposable needle eventually breaks the bubble! But the life in the bubble was wonderful. That first time your needle enters the vein and the blood gushes into...
Doctor Who
Classes, clinics, practicals, teachers, professors… It’s all over now. The results came out and the way I lived my life has changed! I am now an employee and not a student. But what excites me the most is that now I am a doctor!! 4 and a 1/2 years of slogging your ass off makes you really despitate to achieve your goal. And once you really get it… you are extatic beyond words! Plus, on top of that being a doctor changes the way people look at you. You see a new respect coming your way. They respect you not just for what you are but for what you can do… save lives!!! But the system has a way to bring you back down to earth. It’s called Internship. For starters, they pay you just 1700 bucks. We are what they call, cheap desparate...