From MBBS to Urology: Dr. Jaison Philip Reflects on Career Choices and Challenges (Part 1)

Dr. Jaison Philip: I'm Dr. Jaison Philip. I'm a senior urologist at Government Kalaignar Centenary Hospital, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

Dr. Jaison Philip: See when I completed school, I was 17 years old. Those were the times when computers had just appeared. I mean the internet had not been invented yet. There was a crazy combat where I live about the computers. So, I wanted to do computer engineering at Anna University in Tamil Nadu, which is a premium university means it is one of the greatest universities in the world. I wanted to do Computer Science, which I got in a very competitive exam. But I also got a seat for MBBS in Tamil Nadu. I wanted to take Computer Science at Anna University, but my parents forced me into MBBS.

Dr. Jaison Philip: Yeah, it’s still a regret, it’s been several decades, but regret not doing computer science because I'm still fascinated by computers. I have a great regard for computer engineers and if you want me to swap it now, I would readily give up a medical career to be a computer engineer. That's what I want.

Dr. Jaison Philip: I've been a full-fledged urologist now 24x7 and I may be called to my hospital at any time, so I have very little time for any other activities. I’m a transplant surgeon, so that's my specialty in urology - kidney transplants so that's an honorary position and so I don't find that much free time to pursue computer science.

Dr. Jaison Philip: I don't know how it is in other states. In Tamil Nadu, there is an entrance exam at every step so after MBBS there was an entrance exam to choose postgraduate seats and I was very fixated with it. Even during school, I was fixated on psychiatry so I wanted to do M.D. Psychiatry. I secured very high marks in the postgraduate entrance exam conducted by the government of Tamil Nadu and I wanted to do MD Psychiatry. But my parents said psychiatry won't get you money, you must be prosperous even after we leave. So, you have to do general surgery and they push me into MS surgery. Once they pushed me into surgery, I was committed to urology because I like the kidney, I like kidney transplants, and all that stuff. But given a choice. I would have been a psychiatrist.

Dr. Jaison Philip: That is a very unhealthy practice. I mean it still is. I mean, my parents are dead. They've been dead for decades. But I still look back and sometimes curse my parents for pushing me into MBBS instead of Computer Science and surgery instead of psychiatry and the general means. The general attitude of at least I mean at least general attitude Tamil parents in South India or even in the entire country, I guess it that one should be a doctor or an engineer to be prosperous or to have a short career. I know many successful people, very successful scientists, architects, and musicians. So many other people who have done great in the military etc. So, this is a very unhealthy practice in India where parents force their children either to be doctors or engineers. This should be the choice of the particular person and not the parent. So, I condemn that.

Dr. Jaison Philip: Of course I did. I actually cried and I didn’t eat food for several days and I said I want MD psychiatry even today. My psychiatry friend said, you know more psychiatry than we do because I have a large library at home and I have a lot of psychiatry books to use in my free time. So, I did the cry. I did throw tantrums and all that. But they said they actually filled up forms for me, just asked for my signature and that's it. I didn't. They just pushed me into it and I had to an interview with a higher official to say which field I wanted to pursue and my mother was tutoring me just as I entered the hall, she said MS general surgery or you will face the consequences. So, I was very harassed. I harassed been by both my father and mother. Incidentally, love me. Out of love, they thought Psychiatry was a low-earning field and surgery was a high-earning field. Assessment yet those were a great deal of she read every trick in the book I have been causing and threatening suicide and all that stuff mean if you don't take MS in surgery, I’ll commit suicide and all that stuff. All that combined pushed me into surgery instead of psychiatry.

Dr. Jaison Philip: Well. I mean in India you don't have many choices. An American or a European will have a lot of choices, work as a child, as a teenager, as a youth, and as an adult. But the Indian culture doesn't give you a lot of choice. Once I entered general surgery there was no getting back so I started. I developed an interest in general surgery and after that in urology. At the end of my surgery course, I became a good surgeon and I was also interested in surgery by then. Eventually, I became a very good surgeon.

Dr. Jaison Philip: My parents died somewhat seven years back and every time I mean every time this discussion came up. I used to tell them "I was a born psychiatrist time". I really don't know. I go on Twitter and I read a lot of psychiatrist articles by B. I. Havel, K. Young, Sigmund Freud, Eric Erickson, Maslow, and Adler. That's the zone where I belong. So, I still believe that I really belong in psychiatry. But that doesn't mean I hate surgery. But since I've been a surgeon for decades now, I'm happy with it. But still, my first choice would have been psychiatry. But that doesn't mean I don't enjoy surgery, performing it, or teaching it. I'm a teacher now, I teach it to MS students, and MCH students, even nursing students. I will experience both performing surgery and teaching surgery to budding surgeons, so it is an enjoyable experience. Though I'm unfortunate to have lost my parents seven years back, I cannot criticize them as they are long dead. That's it.

Dr. Jaison Philip: Yeah, the mentality has changed with time. I mean, it's not like what it was three decades back. A lot of my students said their parents were pushing them into radio diagnosis or orthopedics. Yet they chose general surgery over that. I'm happy that these choices which were denied to me are now being given to others. India is changing and so is our graphic base. There is a greater understanding that the person who's undergoing the post has to give his consent and his opinion has to be taken seriously. As a great deal of change now from my time to the times of my students. Most of my students are allowed to take the branch or the sub-branch which they like irrespective of what the parents want.

Dr. Jaison Philip: This is atrocious, we are not bonded laborers. I was about to write it; I'll be writing it tonight or tomorrow on Twitter. When I have time. There was an article by Dinagaran Rajamani on Twitter saying.  "We don't serve our bonds and all this stuff and I mean see you create medical college hospitals to serve the poor and needy people of your state. And the byproduct of that is creating medical students, postgraduate students, and super specialists. You don't spend that much money on us. We give our sweat and blood. You see how does medical college run? The medical college runs on the blood of the House Surgeons and the postgraduate students ask them to go on a strike for a month. I mean the medical college will fold them. When I did MBBS, for the entire course I spent around Rs. 10,000 on the entire course including the books and the fee determined by the government of Tamil Nadu and I got it back as house surgeon when I got my stipend. The same was true for an MS student and the same was true for an MCS student and that is how it should be. The fee should be low because we do a great deal of means. Sometimes it's 36 hours duty, sometimes it's 48 hours duty and sometimes it's 72 hours duty. So, we give up blood. Mean. I thought during my MCS in Urology. I thought I would never make it to the lab out of this school because it took so much out of me. The abuse by teachers, by parents, by patients, by nurses, some nurses, and the nature of the job itself. So, I mean fixing high peace as you said in Haryana and whatever other place that's not. I don't think the government of Tamil Nadu has such high fees and all this bond talk is absolute rubbish. You can't ask people to go serve abroad for three years after studying MCH or surgery. I completely condemn this practice, lower the fees, and no bond for anybody. MBBS, MS or MCA, MH, MD or DM, or all these things and about USMLE and PLAB. I mean the see is given the attitude of consumer courts and the court judgments which 90 percent of times go against the doctor we had and pay. Attacks on Indian doctors by patients. And so many anti-doctor articles in newspapers and all that stuff. I would encourage people to go for USMLE and PLAB to leave this country. For example, my classmates settled down in the US and the UK, they are now British and US citizens, and they say I mean the life that we enjoy even in Dubai, the life that we enjoy and the quality of life that we enjoy, and the freedom with which we operators cannot be imagined in India. In India, the medical field professionals are parochial people, at least the administrators. So here we are given a free hand. We both get job satisfaction, we get for the money, commensurate with our experience and work, and we get job satisfaction and the quality of living in these countries is really great. So, I mean if you can take a USMLE, please do that first. If you have the money to give a try for USMLE, please do that first. I mean that would be my frank advice to freshly passing out medical students.