2019
When I re-read the post I made on here at the start of the year, I immediately thought, “Oh Kim. You sweet summer child. You had no idea how rough the rest of the year was going to be.” What a surprise it was that the final year of uni would be most challenging academic year I’d ever have.
...I guess it’s not that surprising -- but it definitely caught me off-guard. I studied. A lot. It was one of the first times I ever felt like I needed to sacrifice some play time with study time. Some troughs of the year were pretty deep and I definitely questioned what I was doing this for. To remind myself before internship starts next year, I want to write about the kind of doctor I’d like to be.
I’ve only looked up to two doctors. One was the GP I used to work for and the other was the junior registrar who supervised me when I was on cardiology. For both of them, they made their patients their top one priority. Every decision they made was so they could improve their patient’s lives, and that really showed through their work. They were always compassionate. On top of that, they were knowledgeable and efficient. Their ego never got in the way. Their personal goals never got in the way either.
From what I’ve seen during my placements, it’s easy for doctors to feel beat down by the hospital system, which to be fair can be a pretty rough system to work in. There are small things: rushing a conversation with a patient because they’re “too talkative”. Swearing under their breath at other health staff. I'd really like to avoid getting into an “us versus them” mantra. At the end of the day, the person sitting in front of you who is sick is your top priority. From what I saw from the GP and junior registrar, keeping this central belief inadvertently leads to you becoming a good doctor, and I’d really like to follow in their footsteps.
There are a lot of bad doctors out there. I gotta be one of the good ones.
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Academic stuff aside, I started to paint with watercolours and it has been super fun to try my hand at some scenery. I got inspired by recently rewatching Avatar: TLR and LOK. Maybe I can work my way up and paint one of the air temples. The background paintings/art is incredible.
















