Junior doctors must be prepared for a hard slog

I AM referring to the recent news reports on the survey conducted among junior doctors in this country which found that 79.63% of respondents said they had experienced bullying at work, with 71% saying their experiences were serious enough to be categorised as “symptomatic bullying,” and that the Health Ministry would be organising a dialogue with them to hear out their concerns.

I’m wondering why there are so many grievances and complaints of bullying among junior professionals in the medical field compared to other professions.

Is it because they were given false hope that this job is respected and offers lucrative pay but once they start working, they realised it is not so? On the contrary, they need to work hard if they want to succeed.

I am really amazed with the number of complaints made by junior doctors. In my opinion, it is much easier to be junior doctors now than in yesteryear as they have so many seniors to teach and guide them and training programmes for postgraduate studies.

Furthermore, their seniors are not as volatile as those in the past since they are being watched by parents of the junior doctors.

I believe that very few of the junior doctors who are complaining now will go up the ladder because one should be thick-skinned and resilient to reach the peak of the medical profession.

Nothing comes easy and those who have achieved success in this profession definitely had to go through much hardship to be where they are.

So, if you want to be in this profession, be prepared mentally and physically to endure a tough journey and gather as much knowledge as possible to become good doctors and offer the best service to your patients.

KANIKA Bukit Mertajam