What brought you into medicine?  Was it a calling or are you just here for the claps on a Thursday? 

“I like to live dangerously and knew the NHS was the most likely employer to not afford me the right PPE when facing a potentially fatal airborne pandemic virus.”  (quote from Twitter)

The pandemic has brought a day of reckoning for many people and doctors are no different.  With burnout at an all time high, and the state of our UK health service, sadly, a bin fire, the time has never been riper to ask ourselves how things came to this point for ourselves.   

While coaching works with what we have in the present and where it is we want to go, asking ourselves how we even got here in the first place leads us into the next question: how are those reasons still serving us now – and then, what can we usefully do with that knowledge?  

Social media can be a poisoned chalice but used judiciously, can bring us connections, opportunities and knowledge.  A recent twitter thread drew over 200 responses on the theme of: “Why did you go into medicine?”   

Maybe some of these answers are more about posturing or the jokes.  Maybe the answers will be different if we answer them quietly to ourselves or to one other person.  Probably the answers are different if people answer them after being plied with a few drinks in a bar! 

“As a clueless 17 yr old I only knew a few jobs eg teacher, train driver, doctor, farmer & astronaut. I was heading for good grades & keen to stay on Earth so went for number 3.” 

 However, several common themes did emerge in the thread… let’s have a look at them and see which might apply to you. 

Your parents wanted you to be a doctor

Most of us took the path into medicine when we were choosing our ‘A’ levels and GCSEs (‘O’ levels in my day!). The human brain does not finish growing until we are about 25 years old.  So although at 18, we are old enough to vote, order alcohol in a pub and drive a car, are we actually old enough to know that medicine is right for us as a career?   

Unsurprisingly, a lot of us may be here because our parents subtly or not so subtly channelled us into what they saw from the outside: a prestigious, secure and well-paid career they could be proud of.  

“Honestly? Because my parents thought it was a good idea.” 
“After an argument with my parents…” 

Some ethnicities appear to hold medicine in particularly high regard.  Comedian Gina Yashere, who is of Nigerian heritage, does a hilarious sketch of her mum’s wishes for her daughter to have a medical career – watch it here.  Gina Yashere Talks About Her Mum | Live at the Apollo | BBC Comedy Greats – YouTube 

“Having south Asian parents” 

“as a Pakistani, being a good student meant either engineer or dr and I hated maths” 

It seemed like a good steady job with good money 

Some of us are earning more money than others these days.  While the press still seem to think that doctors are loaded, medical salaries have drastically eroded in relative terms in recent years.   

“Wanted to escape my working class upbringing where money was always short.” 

“unlikely to be laid off in a recession” 

“Seemed like a well-paid posh job” 

Are these reasons about money from a place of resonance or dissonance?  Maybe you hold financial security for you and your family as a value?  Or were you scared to do what you really want? 

If a good salary was a driver, how does that reason still hold for you today and is that enough to see you through these times? 

Feeling as if we have become hostages to our mortgages, school fees and other expenses is a very common scenario in mid life that we need help with if we are to find our way out of that. 

You were good at science at school 

An aptitude for biology aged 14 combined with an enthusiastic career’s advisor is a remarkably easy way to end up with the best part of your life in medicine.  I wonder what they would say now if they knew what the profession went through in the pandemic? 

Maybe you had a great relationship with one of your science teachers?  Were they inspirational in some way – and how does that person figure for you today? 

Was your school one of those that likes to publicise that they get a lot of students into medicine?  Whose choice was it, actually – theirs or yours? 

“doing well at science A levels, and grown-ups all thought that medicine was a good idea” 

“Good at science, so teacher suggested medicine” 

Maybe it was just down to poor career’s advice… 

“I wanted to be an interpreter but my school careers advisor said it was too stressful. 30 yrs of medicine, 27 in the emergency department later……..” 

“I started because the headmaster of my comprehensive school told me to apply and i just did as told” 

What would you have done if you had been entirely free to choose, without influence from anyone else? 

Your parents were doctors 

Maybe you grew up subconsciously taking on all the traits that make a good doctor. Your parents seemed to have good lives?  Or was it just expected of you? 

“inspired by my three maternal aunts who were medics , 2 of whom were in the forces” 

“Too cowardly not to continue fourth generation family profession…” 

“My grandfather and father were both very successful doctors, and I had good grades, so it was the family tradition” 

If you have children, what would you say to support them with choosing a career? 

How is your profession influencing your children’s career choice? 

TV shows, anyone? 

“I watched Anthony Clare on Kenny Live in 89- he had just accepted Prof of Psychiatry in Trinity talking about how he would miss his patients in London, and they would miss him. I thought I wanted to do a job which was important to people.” 

“I blame watching ER in my formative years…..” 

“liked Scrubs (TV show)” 

“my only real insight was Cardiac Arrest”

Enough said!

You grew up with illness in the household 

Surprisingly common and worth unpicking more.  Perhaps there were some excellent professionals involved that inspired you.  Was there one person who stood out? What were they like?   

“A couple of weeks into 6th form, my sister had a brain haemorrhage and needed emergency neurosurgery. Her surgeon was so kind to me and my family I thought maybe I could do similar” 

“I started to appreciate/understand more & more what the drs were doing for my parents & thought “I need to be part of that; I want to do that for someone’s family” 

“Because, having cycled into the back of stationary lorry, I spent, at an impressionable age, a week in a hospital bed. The subsequent desire to be a doctor is, perhaps, the worst of all surgical complications!” 

Could there be a darker side: of going into medicine trying to fix something that cannot be fixed?  Only you can decide that one.  If you want to go deep, read psychiatrist Laurence Blum’s essay on physicians and hidden guilt as a driver into doing good as a career.   

“With appreciating social impacts of long term mental health conditions compounded by grief in family member, thought Psychiatry/mental health would probably be where I would go,“ 

Straightforward altruism – phew! 

Well you did say you just wanted to help people at your medical school interview, didn’t you?  Oh yes, you did… 

“there was something about being able to make a *real* difference to people’s lives that sticks to the current day” 

“I can’t fix everything. I can’t even fix most things. But I can help ease suffering and that’s what matters” 

“For me it’s all about understanding anatomy, the playing field of all disease” 

“It is a huge platform for advocacy” 

The funny stuff 

Escape from small northern towns, anyone?  These comments are tongue in cheek – but by going away to university, we may well be trying to run from something.   Personally speaking, I left Middlesbrough, went to university in London and never went bac.    Thirty years later I will now say there is nothing wrong with the place and I miss certain aspects of it – but I was certainly very impressed by London and so….what was that all about?   

“The beer was cheap (ie free) and it had a guaranteed job at the end of it along with a lot of new friends and a mrs. I really am that shallow!” 

“Thought I might get to meet girls (Met my wife, so that part at least worked out)” 

“A doctor gave me a lollipop after a pre school vaccine. A nurse did my injection and I was thinking I wanted to be a nurse, then the doctor came in and gave me the lollipop. I wanted to be in charge of the lollipops, so from then on I wanted to be a doctor.” 

That’s all well and good…now what to do with this information?

Ask yourself why you went into medicine?

Are the reasons still relevant today? If so, what can you do to reconnect with that purpose?

If the reasons are now firmly in the past, why are you still in medicine now? Your first answer may well still be the practical stuff such as your mortgage – or perhaps feeling like you do not have any other options.

Ask yourself why you are still in medicine several times and write down each answer. Your fifth or seventh ‘why’ is likely to be a lot more revealing.

If your list of ‘whys’ doesn’t feel good or you still feel stuck – try the question: why do you not feel able to move forwards? And who could help with that?

What to read

Simon Sink: Start with Why: https://simonsinek.com/books/start-with-why/

Jane Ransom’s Self-Intelligence has an excellent chapter on ‘Why’ (chapter 17). It’s a much easier read than Sinek and my personal favourite: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Self-Intelligence-Science-Based-Approach-Reaching-Potential/dp/B0BPK1

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading. Finding your ‘why’ again is something I can help with. Just drop me an email or book a call via the link on this website.

Claire