Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

The first page in a story that’s been years in the making

Mihan De Silva
Education
February 2, 2022
Share
Tweet
Share

The year is 2022.

Like the thousands of freshly minted new medical students around the country, we sit in this liminal space between a life past and the journey to come. In a time when the word uncertainty does not begin to describe the climate of our health care systems around the world, we are truly stepping into a global institution marred by systemic fatigue, constant entropy, and profound grief.

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a doctor. Although my motivation and vision of what my life would look like has changed, returned, and changed countless times over the years, being a medic has always been a part of the story, no matter how big or small.

In many ways, I am still that naive child who wanted to be a trauma doc that traveled to the most war-torn places of the world and provided care and comfort to another human.

I don’t know if I’ll ever stop being that child.

However, as I have grown and experienced slightly more of the world, I have begun to realize many of the intricacies and complexities of the systems that govern (and restrain) us as people. The ways in which our health, both physical and mental, and access to wellbeing, is still very much an upper-middle-class, suburban, cis-heteronormative, patriarchal, white, Western commodity.

Lying between some of the intersections of these identities has meant that I have profited from the very systems that have profoundly wounded, silenced, and even killed those with whom I share other parts of my identity.

Despite being a profession that always has and always will need to touch every soul from every background, experience, and walk of life. As an institution, medicine is still grappling with a profound unidimensional identity crisis. Homogeneity is the name of the game. Historically, this uniformity in western medicine looked very white, male, and affluent. Although significant change has seen the inclusion and empowerment of women and racial diversity within the walls of health care, medicine is still a deeply privileged and inaccessible profession.

Albeit, this seems reasonably innocuous at first glance. Potentially appearing more as a workforce diversity issue, or something more internal. However, the ramifications of an ignorantly homogenous workforce are insidious, profound, and very much external.

An institution that does not hear all voices at its table hears only one.

For the millions that fall outsides the margins of this uniformity, a system designed in theory to protect, transforms into one that silences, maltreats, and exacerbates an already debilitating disparity.

Although an argument can be made that protecting those that fall at the margins is a workforce strategy issue that can be fixed by diversifying recruitment and empowering those that do enter the halls of medicine. It is just as much an institution-wide issue.

We are entering this profession to save lives.

Many of us will happen fall within the uniformity of privilege. Some of us won’t. But for those that do, this is our call to recognize that identities disparate from our own exist. Not to just recognize those identities, but to centralize them.

ADVERTISEMENT

We are entering the institution of medicine in a time where chaos, tribulation, and abnormality are the norm.

While we are being called to push the system forward and keep moving from day to day, let us remember those who will fall through the cracks, those who have been historically wronged by the system meant to protect them. Let us remember the people who may not yet have the voice to step up for themselves. Let us remember those whose lives are uprooted and ravaged in unimaginable ways by this pandemic. Let us remember those both similar and vastly different to us.

As we embark on this journey together, let us believe that our greatest strength will always lie in our differences and that our greatest achievement will lie in remolding the institution of medicine into one that heals all of us, with no one left behind.

Mihan De Silva is a medical student in Australia.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

Prev

Who will heal the wounded healers?

February 2, 2022 Kevin 1
…
Next

Bringing the Hippocratic Oath into the venture capital world [PODCAST]

February 2, 2022 Kevin 0
…

Tagged as: Medical school

Post navigation

< Previous Post
Who will heal the wounded healers?
Next Post >
Bringing the Hippocratic Oath into the venture capital world [PODCAST]

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

  • A medical student as storyteller and story-listener

    Yoo Jung Kim, MD
  • A medical student’s story of racism and bias

    Akosua Y. Oppong
  • End medical school grades

    Adam Lieber
  • Change the experience: a Muslim medical student’s story

    Manar Mohammad, MD
  • The medical school personal statement struggle

    Sheindel Ifrah
  • Why medical school is like playing defense

    Jamie Katuna

More in Education

  • My first week on night float as a medical student

    Amish Jain
  • Why doctors need emotional literacy training

    Vineet Vishwanath
  • A simple 10-10-10 tool to prevent burnout through mindfulness

    Annabelle Bailey
  • How racism and policy failures shape reproductive health in America

    Kaitlynn Esemaya, Alexis Thompson, Annique McLune, and Anamaria Ancheta
  • Imagining a career path beyond medicine and its impact

    Hunter Delmoe
  • What is professional identity formation in medicine?

    Adrian Reynolds, PhD
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • The human case for preserving the nipple after mastectomy

      Thomas Amburn, MD | Conditions
    • Nuclear verdicts and rising costs: How inflation is reshaping medical malpractice claims

      Robert E. White, Jr. & The Doctors Company | Policy
    • IMGs are the future of U.S. primary care

      Adam Brandon Bondoc, MD | Physician
    • Why I left the clinic to lead health care from the inside

      Vandana Maurya, MHA | Conditions
    • Why doctors must fight for a just health care system

      Alankrita Olson, MD, MPH & Ashley Duhon, MD & Toby Terwilliger, MD | Policy
    • How doctors can think like CEOs [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
  • Past 6 Months

    • Health equity in Inland Southern California requires urgent action

      Vishruth Nagam | Policy
    • How restrictive opioid policies worsen the crisis

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • Why primary care needs better dermatology training

      Alex Siauw | Conditions
    • Why pain doctors face unfair scrutiny and harsh penalties in California

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • How a doctor defied a hurricane to save a life

      Dharam Persaud-Sharma, MD, PhD | Physician
    • What street medicine taught me about healing

      Alina Kang | Education
  • Recent Posts

    • Why doctors must fight for a just health care system

      Alankrita Olson, MD, MPH & Ashley Duhon, MD & Toby Terwilliger, MD | Policy
    • Affordable postpartum hemorrhage solutions every OB/GYN can use worldwide [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • When cancer costs too much: Why financial toxicity deserves a place in clinical conversations

      Yousuf Zafar, MD | Physician
    • Psychiatrist tests ketogenic diet for mental health benefits

      Zane Kaleem, MD | Conditions
    • The hidden rewards of a primary care career

      Jerina Gani, MD, MPH | Physician
    • Why physicians should not be their own financial planner

      Michelle Neiswender, CFP | Finance

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

Leave a Comment

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • The human case for preserving the nipple after mastectomy

      Thomas Amburn, MD | Conditions
    • Nuclear verdicts and rising costs: How inflation is reshaping medical malpractice claims

      Robert E. White, Jr. & The Doctors Company | Policy
    • IMGs are the future of U.S. primary care

      Adam Brandon Bondoc, MD | Physician
    • Why I left the clinic to lead health care from the inside

      Vandana Maurya, MHA | Conditions
    • Why doctors must fight for a just health care system

      Alankrita Olson, MD, MPH & Ashley Duhon, MD & Toby Terwilliger, MD | Policy
    • How doctors can think like CEOs [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
  • Past 6 Months

    • Health equity in Inland Southern California requires urgent action

      Vishruth Nagam | Policy
    • How restrictive opioid policies worsen the crisis

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • Why primary care needs better dermatology training

      Alex Siauw | Conditions
    • Why pain doctors face unfair scrutiny and harsh penalties in California

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • How a doctor defied a hurricane to save a life

      Dharam Persaud-Sharma, MD, PhD | Physician
    • What street medicine taught me about healing

      Alina Kang | Education
  • Recent Posts

    • Why doctors must fight for a just health care system

      Alankrita Olson, MD, MPH & Ashley Duhon, MD & Toby Terwilliger, MD | Policy
    • Affordable postpartum hemorrhage solutions every OB/GYN can use worldwide [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • When cancer costs too much: Why financial toxicity deserves a place in clinical conversations

      Yousuf Zafar, MD | Physician
    • Psychiatrist tests ketogenic diet for mental health benefits

      Zane Kaleem, MD | Conditions
    • The hidden rewards of a primary care career

      Jerina Gani, MD, MPH | Physician
    • Why physicians should not be their own financial planner

      Michelle Neiswender, CFP | Finance

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Leave a Comment

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...