Dr Sharma’s dream inspired by her parents
Becoming a doctor has always been Loreen Sharma’s one and only dream. It has been since she was five years old. Dr Sharma said her parents was her inspiration because she remembers receiving a doctors’ toy play set from them as a gift and absolutely falling in love with it.
“I used to pretend to be a doctor all day, fill water bottles with red cordial to make fake blood and use broom sticks as injections while my family were my mock patients,” she said.
“I loved being a doctor then and I love being a real one now! As I grew, my parents supported my dreams and made a lot of sacrifices for me to get to where I am today. I am indebted to them.”
Dr Sharma, 31, is currently working full time in the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in the department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Unit as Registrar/Doctor.
“I am also currently studying full time doing my Masters in Anaesthesia. This is my 6th year of work as a doctor after my MBBS degree and 4th year in my current job at CWMH,” she said.
She was born in Lautoka and lived her first two years of life in a small farm in Lomawai Sigatoka with her family where her father worked on her grandparents’ sugarcane farm.
“However, he did not want that lifestyle for us thus we moved to Suva when I was a little less than two years old. I am married and mother of a two-year-old baby boy who has been the best thing in my life,” she added. She said everything had its own pros and cons and same goes with her ambition to become a doctor.
“It involved tremendous hard labour, sacrificing my leisure time and replacing it with books and time away from special functions and my family,” Dr Sharma said.
“There was also lot of competition and criticism along the years which occasionally would break my self-confidence but through my faith in God and through the support of my family I would always heal and bounce back stronger.
“Through the years, the words of appreciation and blessing I would get from patients who I would treat, kept the fire of being a great doctor within me burning and I yearned to become the best version of myself.”
She also said keeping a balance between professional and personal life was a challenge. “Studying and working full time while aspiring to be a good wife and mother as well as fulfilling responsibilities of being a daughter,” she added.
“I have had drastic changes in life in a short period of time such as getting married, bearing and rearing my son, making a home, playing a role in the social and medical community and keeping up with the advances in medical field.
“I feel women have been burdened with the expectation to be the ‘super doctor’, ‘super wife’ and ‘super mom’ all in one.”
She said she was fortunate that her husband had sacrificed his career to stay home and look after their baby whilst she made a career for herself.
“We need men who support us in our life and help pursue our dreams.”
Advice
Dr Sharma said there was a whole world of opportunities out there for women and girls to seize.
“I encourage girls to prioritise education and to be firm and ambitious. Work hard for what you want to become and achieve,” she said.
She said gender equality began at home, and families are at the front lines of change. “For the next generation, the examples set at home by parents, care-givers and extended family are shaping the way they think about gender and equality,” she said.
“Raising the aspirations of girls and their parents is one of the key strategies that must be used to change how girls, families and society imagine what girls can be and can do. “We need to give girls images and role models that expand their dreams. We also need parents to see that there really are opportunities for their daughters, that their only security is not just to be good wives and mothers.”