Joey M.D.

Congratulations!  You’ve finished your medical education and are well on your way to being the doctor you dreamed of.  You’re now looking at the world through rose colored glasses, where everything looks bright, shiny and new.  Enjoy this feeling!  It’s your achievement and you deserve it!

Do understand, however, that the world doesn’t hand you everything on a silver platter just because you’ve finished medical education and earned the letters M.D. after your name.  You’re still going on to internship (if your graduation comes just after clerkship), you’ll still have to pass the board exams in order to earn the right to practice, you’re still going to be heavily dependent on your parents.

My advise to fresh graduates would be the following:

• Save and invest.  Now. After your training (residency and fellowship included) is over, you’ll find that you’ll have a lot of overhead expenses and little income, especially at the beginning.  Your parents may be there to still support you, but it’s best that you have your own nest egg for back up.  Another thing, the younger you are, the more risk you can take in investments.  Now is actually a very good time to invest — when the economy is low and stock prices are low.  My choice of investment is equity mutual funds.   Put some money in and keep it there for the long term, at least 5 years.  Better yet, put a little bit more money periodically.  This is something I wish I had done way back when I was in residency.  If you’re business minded, you can start a small business on the side.  It’s easy to set up an online store nowadays.
• Take your board exams as soon as possible.  And endeavor to pass on the first try. Let’s face it.  If you don’t pass the medical boards, you can’t practice.  You can’t apply to residency programs.  You can’t moonlight as a GP.  So after your internship stint is over, take the boards and try to pass it so you can get on with your life.
• Keep yourself updated. Medicine is not static.  It gets updated all the time.  The basic things that you learned in medical school are still the same, but there are new diagnostic modalities and new treatments that come out all the time.  There are even new diseases.  You have to keep yourself well-informed with this.  Another thing is that patients now have access to a lot of medical information, whether they are true or myths.  You have to keep up with what the people know.  You should know more and you should know better.
• It’s best to specialize. It’s hard to be a general practitioner because you are actually a Jack (or Jill) of all trades as far as medicine is concerned.  You know a little bit of everything but much of what you know is “mababaw”.  Specialization makes you more knowledgeable in your particular area of specialty.  It also makes you limit your practice only to cases that are within your expertise.  On the practical side, specialists have a higher income potential in the long run.
• Love your profession. Every profession has its ups and downs, but you have to live with the choice of profession that you made.  If you love Medicine, it will reward you with joy beyond the monetary benefits.
• Always pray. Pray for good judgment.  Pray that you will do the best that you can for your patients.
• Love your patients. We are doctors because we want to heal the sick.  The sick come to you because they feel bad and they trust you to be able to help them and comfort them.  They may be cranky.  Understand them.  While in training, practice good bedside manners.  This will go a long way to helping your patients heal.
• Love your batchmates. You will be going in different fields later on.  You will rely on your friends for discussions and referrals.  Cultivate friends, don’t make enemies among your batchmates.
• Nurture an interest aside from medicine. Life is not just about Medicine.  Paint, sing, climb mountains, play basketball, golf or badminton, write blogs…do whatever you are interested in.  You are not just a doctor, you are a person with diverse interests.  And it’s these things that make your life more interesting.

I hope that these will help you in the life that you face ahead.  Good luck, and see you around!

——————–

This is my contribution to the March 2009 edition of The Blog Rounds, Letter to a (Medical Graduate), hosted by The Last Song Syndrome.