The human mind has the incredible capacity to repress those unpleasant aspects of life-altering experiences like childbirth and medical training in order to coax the body into doing the same thing again. That is why our species is so successful, and why people can still graduate from medicine and stay as doctors. Next year, most of you will match headstrong (or headfirst) into the frontline of that battlefield called internship. This battle is about facing one of our worst fears - confronting and overcoming your vulnerabilities and insecurities. The intern year is likely the fastest year of growing up that a young mind has to ever go through. The responsibilities that come with the honor of being addressed as “Doctor” must never be underestimated. Nothing will fully prepare you for the emotional roller-coaster ride that entails. Hopefully, this article might just help that a little bit.

Point 1: Know thy limitations. That is, know what you can do and what you can’t do. This involves a balancing act of maintaining your self-confidence while restraining any tendencies towards becoming an arrogant “know-all”(or the proverbial “smart-ass”). Humility does one a lot of good, as some religious books would tell you. Recognize when you need help, acknowledge that someone always knows better, and most importantly, ask for help when you need it. It is not a shame or embarrassment to ask for help. A good doctor never stops asking and learning because as you grow older you will learn the truth in that cliche –“the more you learn, the less you will realize you knew”.

Point 2: Be honest with thyself and be honest with others. Do not make up things or information that you don’t know or are not sure of (e.g. bed 10’s bilirubin level from the other day) because you fear that others will find out how little you know. Lying will undermine your credibility as a doctor in people’s minds in the long run.

Point 3: Learn from thy mistakes. This is a hard one, and I sometimes think only a saint can do this right. Face up to your failures, have the courage of admitting it to yourself and hopefully to others. Don’t brush them aside. It is only by doing this would you learn and find resolution, and move on. Remember, one does not define a hero by how high he climbs, but how quickly he picks himself up after he has fallen.

Point 4: If thou want to be treated with respect, thou have to earn it. Work hard,and others will work hard for you. Treat your patients/ nurses/ peers/ consultants/ examiners (PS: not in any particular order) nicely, and they will treat you well. There is no free lunch, and there is no short cut.

Point 5: Avoid losing thyself in The System. It is very easy to become depersonalized in the chaotic hospital environment because of the stressful atmosphere and stereotyped roles each of us has to play. Very often the demanding patient fails to see that tired, discouraged young person behind the surgical mask, and conversely, the impersonal doctor fails to see that once-a-beautiful-young mother-now-turned-bald-and-bloated “case of lymphoma day 10 post stem-transplant” Try putting yourself into someone’s shoes* (note*: a figure of speech for C-O-M-P-A-S-S-I-O-N, just in case) for a minute, then your anger/ prejudice/ frustration/ disgust ..etc will dissipate.

Point 6: Thou shall learn to handle stress in thy own way. One of the ways when I get too overwhelmed with the stress of a situation is to stand back, take a deep breath and then tell myself, “yes, I am having a really bad day right now. But one day I am going to look back and tell myself that, gee, that was a really bad day, but I got over it just like any other regular bad days in my life”. The fact is you should not bottle up stress because it will wear you out in the long run. You need to wash it away like a bad odor as soon as it happens to you. Go and debrief with your friends/ peers/ parents/ pets/ indoor plants/ taxi-driver/ the cashier girl at Café about just how bad your day has been. For those who are more reserved, go and smash that ball instead, turn that loudspeaker up or jog that extra 10 kilometers also helps. It does not matter how to combat stress, remember, just don’t sit there and sulk and ruminate and let stress metastasizes within you like a cancer.

Point 7: Develop a sense of humor. Black humor helps a lot, especially if you are an oncologist. You will find that most oncologists are infected with a light-hearted sense of sarcastic humor. It is perfectly healthy to laugh at yourself too every now and then because it is a really good way to beat stress. It is through this black humor that most oncologists, I think, can handle the worst spectrum of pain and suffering that humanity has to offer on a daily basis. The other way, of course, is to believe that God and all His entourage exists (i.e. guardian angels, cherubims, archangels, .etc), but that’s another can of worms altogether and I would like to keep religion (and politics, too) out of this article.

Point 8: The futility of constant worrying. There is no point worrying about things that have not yet happened and things that are well in the past. Constant worrying will only wear you out and turn you into a sleepless zombie, and the worst thing is, worrying stops you from focusing on the Present. It’s true that you can prepare yourself better by anticipating the future, but there is no prize in mulling over what you cannot control (e.g. worried about how you could have done better in that exam, about being able to get the Nobel Prize..etc). The following paragraph is a parable and targets those who like hiking. You can skip to Point 9 if you have no idea what hiking is (or if you cannot stand the sentimentalist tone). Life is like a long mountain hike, and the peak always seems impenetrable from a distance. However, the closer you get to it the more likely you are going to find a little pass or a sidetrack that will lead you to the top. There are many roads to the top, too, some are straight and easy, but some are tortuous and dangerous. Many a times you will find yourself at a cross-road, wondering which path to take. What you’ve got to do is to take the path which you think is the most appropriate at the time, then you steadily move forward one step at a time. Do not blame yourself or others if you get lost or get stuck because no one can foresee the future. You just have to pick yourself up and move on to a different path or turn back. For me, doing medicine has been the best hike (and still is) in my life because it has enriched my life and my perspectives on the world around me. Like many people, I had little idea of what I wanted to become at the beginning. I started off following somebody else’s road and then slowly made my own track as I went along. Sometimes I turned back too, feeling defeated, but only to realize later on that because I had decided to turn back, I could find newer opportunities hiding in the corner, waiting for me.

Point 9: Reward thyself after a long day, because thou deserve it. Look after yourself. If you think you are physically / emotionally not 100%, go and get help. It?¦s the bare minimum you can do for yourself. Why study medicine to help others when you could hardly help yourself in the first place?

Point 10: Make short-term goals that thou can reach, and most of all, have hope. Always have the Big Picture in your mind i.e. why do you put yourself through medical school in the first place and what do you want out of it. Don’t burn yourself out too soon. You are only in your twenties and you have a lot more life to catch up. Statistically you’ve got at least 50-60 more years to fix things that didn’t turn out right for you in the past. Have hope. Learning to become a doctor is still a noble tradition regardless of what the cynics say. Don’t forget to “take time to pause and smell the roses”, as the saying goes. Try to find beauty in everything, even in the most ordinary things.

This was taken from the Pinoy MD website