“Welcome to the real world, where people only want answers — correct, accurate answers. […] In life, there is no partial credit for being half right. If you want to accomplish something important, you have to be totally right — and be willing to face the consequences if you are not.”  

Excerpt from When the Air Hits Your Brain, by Frank Vertosick Jr., M.D. 

It’s funny how I’d always come across something that is so relevant to what I’ve been thinking about at that moment, as if the universe ‘gets’ what I’m thinking and is sending a message back at me. Those words from that excerpt pierced right into my heart, and mind. It’s probably a gradual process, but at some point during my clerkship rotations, I realize this: every passing day I am inching towards that real world- a world where physicians are expected to be perfect all the time.

Some time last week, I was in the neurosurgery morning conference, and the head of department talked about how patients are increasingly demanding, and they would harp on the one mistake that you’ve done, and would not let it go. To some, it doesn’t matter if you’ve done many things to help them or their family member; as long as there is one mistake, that’s it. They will come after you. It’s even more so in the field of neurosurgery than any other specialty – and for good reasons too, of course. But he brought it up to remind everyone that we are being watched – all the time. And so, pandai-pandai lah. 

Just finished neuro clerkship. Moving on to pediatrics. It feels like just yesterday that I did psych, but in actuality I’ve done psych, surgery, and neuro! Half-way point. 3 more rotations to go before year 3 ends. How time flies.