top student at medical school

Chapter 26 The Road Ahead is Long (Please add to your favorites and read on)

That night, Fang Ziye tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

I felt both excited and apprehensive.

Born in a small town, Fang Ziye thought he had embarked on his future after twelve years of diligent study and entering a four-year university. But after arriving at an ordinary 211 university, Fang Ziye found that he had only just begun to live the life of Kong Yiji.

Clinical medicine is a good major with good job prospects and stable income, but the competition is extremely fierce.

From his freshman year of undergraduate studies, Fang Ziye knew that to stay in a teaching hospital in the provincial capital, a doctoral degree was just the basic academic requirement. However, for an ordinary undergraduate like him from a 211 university, pursuing a master's degree would involve a brutal struggle.

Fang Ziye started studying at a young age and only knew how to solve problems.

After leaving, he discovered that his parents were too ordinary. The only thing they could do was provide financial support to send him out of that county. From then on, if Fang Ziye wanted to make a living outside the county, he would have to rely on himself.

This is Fang Ziye's first step in his growth.

During his master's studies, Fang Ziye was fortunate enough to be admitted to Zhongnan Hospital as a professional master's student in orthopedics. At this time, Fang Ziye discovered that in the hospital, the highly educated master's students in the eyes of his relatives were nothing more than doing odd jobs.

On the operating table, doctoral students who want to get the chance to suture have to endure, wait, and have the skills.

In the hospital, even after graduating with a doctorate, you're still just an ordinary brick, moved wherever needed. Even after enduring the long years of doctoral studies, becoming an attending physician like a teacher is just a more advanced brick.

It can be said that Yuan Weihong is considered an 'attending expert' in the eyes of outsiders because he works at Zhongnan Hospital, rather than because Zhongnan Hospital is the best teaching hospital for orthopedics.

Even an associate professor like Xie Jinyuan could only stay huddled up in the hospital, following Professor Deng Yong, honestly learning the techniques and doing research in a down-to-earth manner.

Even Professor Deng Yong is not among the top in the province's medical community. Above him are senior professors and academic leaders.

Fang Ziye was fortunate enough to attend the national orthopedic conference with his teacher. There, he occasionally saw that the big names who stirred up the orthopedic medical field in Hubei Province were still trembling with fear at such an academic conference.

What if you are just an ordinary professor?
He's just a senior worker, nothing much to say about him.

Fang Ziye was fortunate enough to be taken abroad by his teacher once. That time, he went with Professor Deng Yong to Thailand, not far away, to attend a world-class academic conference. It was then that Fang Ziye realized how inadequate China's medical field was when faced with a world-class academic conference.

While we might not say we were helpless, we could say that we were all dressed up in Kong Yiji's long gown.

You simply cannot imagine how advanced the medical standards are abroad. Even if it seems like they are just going through the motions, you can never imagine how rigorous they really are.

According to the teacher, when he went abroad to study, he rented a room in someone else's living room because he had no money.

Even students who receive full financial support for studying abroad still don't have enough money and need to work part-time.

Medical students abroad only begin to understand the medical field at the master's level. Their professors get up very early every day to perform surgeries, make ward rounds, and then spend all their time in the lab, and then the same thing happens again the next day...

While others are doing academic research, they are actually performing surgeries in a down-to-earth manner.

Fang Ziye thought none of this had much to do with him. Forget going abroad, forget large academic conferences; he couldn't even get past the doctoral entrance exam. What awaited him was being sent to a prefecture-level city, then to a provincial-level academic conference, applauding and cheering for others…

At best, you might get a free trip to the national annual meeting, catch a glimpse of other people's performances from afar, and then that's it.

But now, it seems that all of this has been slightly pushed forward and changed.

Pursuing a doctorate is no longer out of reach for me. As long as I can take one more step forward, Professor Deng Yong can recommend me to the Department of Surgery and give me a doctoral position so that I can have the opportunity to study.

I wrote articles, practiced surgery, and then considered whether I could achieve the same level of excellence as someone who would remain in the hospital.

However, Professor Deng Yong also said that if he could truly meet the requirements for the master's level in the first training room, that is, in addition to debridement, suturing, hemostasis, and incision, he would also have other skills that meet the requirements for graduation.

He then allowed himself to graduate with his doctorate ahead of schedule.

There are many advantages to graduating with a PhD early. It allows more time to leisurely enter a postdoctoral research station, focusing on your field of study and solidifying your research and project management skills. This prepares you for the opportunity to emulate your professors and achieve similar success in the future…

Incision, suturing, hemostasis, and debridement are merely basic surgical procedures, fundamental skills, and entry-level techniques. They are things that must be mastered.

Of course, there are other skills that you also need to master well before you can say that you can establish yourself in the hospital. Otherwise...

Using the adjective "despicable you" to describe you is actually a compliment!
For doctors, technical skills come first.

However, to be a better doctor than others, both technical skills and scientific research must go hand in hand. Otherwise, China today is no longer the country where one can stir up the winds and waves simply by performing extraordinary operations.

Let's not think about things that are too far away for now.

"After mastering the hemostasis technique, we can consider graduating early and then staying in the hospital. That's the proper thing to do."

"What 'Ten Thousand Talents Program' or 'Outstanding Young Scientists'? Are those things I can even consider right now?"

"My master said that since I have a professional master's degree, I should first prove that I am indeed a technical talent, so that I can at least become a senior technician in this institute in the future."

"Orthopedic theory, treatment of bone defects, treatment of large-area degloving injuries, catastrophic injuries..."

"Muscle suturing, bone setting, and manual fracture reduction are all skills that need further study and practice. To prepare for the final challenge in the first training room, it would be best to raise both basic and specialized skills to a certain level before graduating next year."

"Bone defect repair techniques, osteoplasty, and bone flap design." Fang Ziye found all these skills from his basic professional skills and then determined the focus of his subsequent work.

Fang Ziye had a dream in which he not only successfully completed his doctoral studies but also stayed on at the hospital. After staying on, he was promoted to attending physician, associate professor, and professor, becoming a prominent figure in the provincial medical field.

But when Fang Ziye was forcibly woken up by the alarm clock, he realized that he was still a junior resident physician, with only a promising future ahead and a long road ahead.

(End of this chapter)