Humble Beginnings

Above: A doctor making a quiet appearance in Robert McCall's mural Reaching for the Stars, 1982.

"EGO IS THE BIGGEST
ENEMY OF HUMANS."
-- The Rig Veda, a collection of over 1,000 hymns, which contain the mythology of the Hindu gods.

I don't know if it was truly planned this way, but I think that Ross gave me a neccesary humbling view of the medical profession...

A few weeks ago... During COMP studying, I was sitting in my typical spot at one of the public libraries. While working on questions, I look up and there was one of the people I went to high school with (keep in mind, long story, but high school wasn't exactly a Cinderella story for me). When I looked up she was about to head in another direction when our eyes linked, and the first thing that came out of my mouth was, "Hey!" She walks over and says "I see you're studying for the Step too." I knew that she went to a U.S. Medical School, so I told her about how Ross gives us the COMP, how I'm away from Dominica now, and the nine-yards about coming from a Caribbean Medical School. The whole time I could tell she had one of those smiles that kinda was put there for kicks. When I finished, all she could say was "Good luck." I wished her the same, and she walked away.

I turned around back to my computer screen, thinking, "Wow, she seemed really snotty."

For those of you unfamiliar with the medical school stories, in short there's definitely discrimination of us Caribbean students pitted against the traditional US student. Our programs are virtually the same in many manners, from organization, to class structure, to topics taught. There's not enough space to fit all of us future doctors in the states, so Caribbean schools were opened, one of the first for this purpose was Ross University in 1978. Although there are many similarities, that "I'm better than you" sentiment has been felt and seen with many of my friends interacting with US Medical Students at residencies and rotations. However, the feedback has been good for us Ross students, with many of our rotation sites saying that our performance has been equivalent or better than U.S. students.

So there :P. But I'm not here to get egotistical about our performance, for a reason.

Going to Ross has made me think retrospectively: had I gone to a med school in the states would I be acting the same way to someone who hasn't made it into med school? Would I be acting the same to my friends who went to a Caribbean med school? I'll be honest, I don't know. But what I can say is that being in this position has really taught me that, no matter who you are, Caribbean or US Medical Student, we're all in the same boat right now: about to take one of the most important exams of our lives, the Step.

Yes, going to a US Medical School is quite an accomplishment, as getting in over thousands of students is no easy job, but in truth, wearing that ego may do more damage to the profession than one may think. We're all going to become doctors, we all have the goal to help the health of the human race. Who cares what school one went to: a respectful sharing of knowledge, fighting for the patient, and effective teamwork is what us doctors need to do to carry medicine forward. When working separately, and not sharing knowledge appropriately, who knows if our decisions are the best ones made or if we overlooked a detail or two? How about encouraging other doctors to perform their best, even if it may seem bettering others than ourselves? Our pride as doctors should, in the end, benefit our patients not our ego.

To me, an ego can only stand in the way of taking care of our focus: patients. An ego won't get any of us closer to our goals as doctors, will it?