The Medical Mind

The semester which involves the most reading has just ended, and what we read was just a small fraction of the whole of the medical field. With so much to read, I wonder if a person can really be confident enough to hold the responsibility to save lives. I think nobody can claim that he or she is fully ready. Someone might claim that he is ready for the final exam, but being fully ready to become a doctor is a very different thing. Fortunately, medicine is insanely human, and with everything else that is human, it involves interactions between individuals. It is like a sport, where no single person can do things alone, teamwork is vital, and if a person doesn’t play by the rules, the thing at stake is the lives of others. Hence, being a team sport, a doctor does not necessarily know everything under the sun. That is why in medicine we have specialties, and a person will decide to devote themselves into a field they feel that they have passion in.
 

Many students make the mistake of wanting to know every single detail there is under the medical umbrella. Many took in the details of the theoretical knowledge too seriously that they lose the humanity of medicine, which was actually the main tenet. Our responsibility lies not in knowing every single detail there is. It is more than just about reading books from cover to cover. I believe with most certainty that to become a great doctor is not just to be knowledgeable in theory, but to cultivate a medical mind.

A medical mind is a mind that of a doctor that is not quick to judge, a mind that observes and analyses before coming out with conclusions. A mind that is trained to see subtle changes, either in anatomical features or human behaviour. A mind that is trained to listen, to perceive even the slightest signs or symptoms, the one that can detect the smallest movements of the small muscles of the face which could indicate a frown or a disagreement, even when the words which came out of the mouth was that of an agreement. Cultivating a medical mind is not just about reading thousands of pages and vomit out every single detail onto a paper, it is about cultivating a mind that can make decisions as sharp as a surgical knife, as confident as puncturing an artery, a mind that is able to take in a flood of information and render it down into simple but important facts that really matters. The simple things that make all the difference.

Cultivating a medical mind is about developing the simplicity of a surgeon in handling the hassles of everyday life and the complexity of a physician in thinking to solve a problem. Medicine is insanely human, it takes more than mere logic to solve the problems confined into the four walls of the hospital. Human complexities are beyond the limits of logic. The diseases that plagues humans are an interplay of our own environment, our anatomy, physiology and our mind. The human mind and body defies logic, one may expect a result from one but not the same from another.

When a medical mind is cultivated, the mind is ready for future endeavours not only in the medical field. History has been sparkled by the presence of doctors in the field of politics, business, economics and even arts. This is because the medical mind not only makes you a better doctor, it makes you a better human. A mind that is trained to take in so many information in so little time is destined to learn the most impossible things at a most rapid rate. A mind that is trained to listen and to detect the subtleties of the body language may succeed anywhere in any field that involves the interaction with other humans and the general public. A mind that is taught to empathize and understand the suffering of others is sought after in relationships, either professionally or personally. These are the qualities of the medical mind. It does not read the mind of others, but it is trained to listen, understand, treat and make life better, for you and the people around.