What is Internal Medicine?
Most people do not understand what Internal Medicine is. I learned this fact while I was on vacation, where on multiple occasions I met people who asked me what my profession was.
This was the usual sequence of communication that followed:-
Me: “I am a doctor”
They: “Cool, so what do you do”
Me: “I am a resident in Internal Medicine”
They: “What is that”
Me: “I am a doctor in training”
They: “Oh! You are still training. So you are not a doctor”
Me: “Well, I am a doctor. I am doing my residency in Internal medicine, which is done after passing out of medical school. I work and learn at the same time” (I elaborated thinking that hopefully this was the last question)
They: “Oh! Ok! So what kind of work do you do”
Me: (Thinking - Oh my God, not again) “I am training in Internal Medicine”
They: “Cool, so do you cut open people. I mean you do surgeries, right”
Me: “No. That is done by surgeons”
They: “Then you are not a doctor. You don’t do surgery”
Me: (Getting a little frustrated and irritated at the same time. Thinking - I have worked so hard to reach this point and now all the credit is taken by surgeons. I will not let this happen) “Well, I diagnose diseases and prescribe medicines”
They: “But the surgeons do that too, right. Then what do you do that they do not do”
Me: (Now really irritated and frustrated. Summoning all my accumulated medical knowledge to this point, I answer his question quite elaborately) “Well, for an example, let’s say you get pneumonia. If you come to me I will give you medicines and cure you. I specialize in non-surgical treatment of diseases. You also have the option to go to the surgeon but he may cut your lungs out. You would not want that, would you!” (I exaggerated)
They: “Naaah!”
End of discussion.
Technorati Tags: Doctor, Internal Medicne, Resident, Surgery
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November 7th, 2008 at 12:29 am
Very frustrating isn’t it? I am an software developer and when and when I tell people I program computers, they ask me if I can help them remove viruses, or install a printer for them. I have to explain that I write software, I don’t know or want to remove viruses from their computers, or stop by their house and install a printer.