“Can’t you stay back in Dhaka?” An old patient asked me during my Ophthalmology rotation when I was in medical school. I politely answered, “I have so much work to do in my country.” While sitting on a chair in my two-bedded room in Dhaka, I had always dreamt about working in Nepal and making a difference for my people. Ever since my arrival in April, I have been trying to make that dream come true. It is very easy to give other people advice or write about how one can make a difference but it is indeed very challenging to implement your values and principles.
We, humans, are subject to greed, comfort and leisure and that pushes us back at a time when we have to make radical decisions in life. When one wants to jump into a road never taken before, one has to think about a whole lot of things, and usually, one comes to a conclusion that life is better when you have loved ones around you. Why leave the comfort zone?
The work is the exact directory of what we were taught in medical school but it comes with politeness and behavior. It requires you to show your dedication on a daily basis and it rewards you accordingly. The shortage of Medical officers is a new uncharted topic that most people never touch upon. It is hard to find people who decide to work after completing their medical school. It is a huge commitment plan that doctors make on the basis of various statistical data and family pressure. Earning a degree and not working is considered worthless in the eyes of the society. A medical officer learns how to follow a consultant and how to stay in a boundary. There comes a point within a month and year when a medical officer starts rejecting the peers of being the third in line to treat a patient.
How can a hospital tap a medical officers potential? Well it depends on the institute they work for. Medical college hospitals try as much to utilize the capability of their medical officers whereas private hospitals just make them their mediators between patients and consultants. Education wise you need a specialization to survive and avoid any insecurity about what and how you can make a difference.
Competitive examinations carried out in Nepal are not sufficient for the larger majorities of graduates. With just hundred seats in IOM and five thousand applicants it is less likely you will be hitting the jackpot with insufficient studying capacity. The learning curve studied in com med class is not helpful at all as it keeps reminding you to learn at a tender age before its too late or is it? When my senior suggested that he worked as a MO for four years before he tapped a major examination is worth reconsidering. Writing has always pushed me to become a better person and yet this is might push me achieve the dream that I evolved over five years.
