Being a health professional... Is it worth it?

I received the following questions via email:

Good afternoon, Dr. Icarus,

While researching a career in medicine and its remuneration, I came across your website icaro.med.br, which has made me want to become an orthopedic doctor even more. I would like to congratulate you on your work as a doctor and ask for some advice, perhaps a friendly and encouraging word or, perhaps, a warning about reality, directed at someone who is graduating from law school (due to finish this year) and who, halfway through the course, has discovered that his true dream and vocation is to be a doctor, specializing in orthopedics-traumatology with a focus on sports physiology and biomechanics. However, faced with countless reports, including from doctors, I've become a little discouraged about this dream, which seems unlikely in my current situation. That's why I'd love to hear your opinion on medicine and practicing in the health sector.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Sincerely, XXX

ANSWER:

To sum up my answer: Medicine is something very beautiful and being a health professional, YES: is VERY worthwhile.

But it all starts with a basic, simple but fundamental question: why exactly do you want to be a healthcare professional? Because it is the answer to this question that will define your fulfillment with your choice. Let me explain:

Do you want to be a health professional in order to help others as your primary objective? Do you want to earn a living and even get money, fame and “power” as NATURAL consequences of helping human beings, with commitment and interest, to have and maintain good health? Then you have everything you need to make the right choice and be very successful and fulfilled with it.

However, do you want to be a health professional in order to make a living, or even with money, fame and “power” as your primary goal? To use patient care in situations where your health is at risk as a way of making your ideals a reality? Then you're bound to be very frustrated, sooner or later, as you discover in the worst possible way that no one can spend their whole life pretending to like something and “unwittingly” taking all this dissatisfaction out on other human beings (who in this context, ironically, are the ones who usually pay for your services).

Understand? Because I think that's the essential question;

There are difficulties in any profession, but with the right focus, they are merely transitory and fully surmountable obstacles, like the fog on the path of a boat guided by a careful captain towards a lighthouse: the boat may have to undergo detours, bumps and sometimes even be temporarily stopped, but it will certainly reach its goal.

To sum up again: It's worth it.

Cheers! Ícaro Alves Alcântara.