Monica WIlliam

EXP

Elliott

7 December, 2016

Informational Interview

Describe the process by which you arrived at your undergraduate major.

• In Egypt, medical school does not actually require an undergrad, it is a 6 year graduate program. I was fascinated with human being behavior, anatomy, and well-being. In high school, we had two paths we could take–math or biology. I took biology and became fascinated by cells and development. In Egypt, when you get a high score, you are eligible for medical school. My score was high because I liked biology and studied hard, so it was easy to get enrolled in medical school, and I achieved one of my goals.

What was your favorite course in college? Was it in your major? Why did you like it?

• I really liked doing my rounds in internal medicine. Yes, it was required as part of the medical school program. I liked it because it required both a lot of knowledge and a lot of thinking and analysis of information. I got to treat many acute critical illnesses like heart attacks, strokes, comas, poisonings, and so on. It required you to understand how to find, analyze, diagnose, treat, and follow up on illnesses. You are also dealing with patients long-term, so it was nice to get to get to stay with and support them. I ended up working in a charity-based hospital, so I enjoyed getting to help the patients who needed it, both financially and medically.

• If you could go back and do it again, would you choose the same major? Why or why not?

• Yes I would, because after experiencing it, it proved to me that I made the right decision and I loved getting to do it. I also can’t imagine myself having done anything else other than specializing in internal medicine. Other specialties may pay better, but I preferred the science behind this one. I got to see many patients after they had been unable to get a diagnoses, and being able to then diagnose them with the knowledge I had was a great feeling, for them and for me. Saving lives during an emergency was the best part of this career.

• What advice would you give somebody who wants to get into this career field?

• First of all, it’s important to study hard while you’re in school. Second of all, work hard during your residency to learn as much as you possibly can. Finally, be honest with your patients once you begin working. Make sure you give them the best diagnoses you can and send them to the best possible place they can be to get help, and give them the best advice that you can offer them.

• What do you think are the most important skills for someone in your career?

• Patience and level-headedness. You have to be patient when learning all the skills and information required to become a doctor. When you become a doctor, you find yourself in situations that are emergencies and it is vital to remain calm, as a doctor who is panicking is going to be no help to anyone. You also have to remember that being a doctor is a continuous learning-experience. New medical discoveries are made all the time, so it is important to keep reading new books and attending conferences so you can learn about new techniques and treatments that will help you help the greatest amount of people to the best of your ability. You have to know all that you can possibly know. Finally, be humble. As much as you may read and as much as you may know, working in medicine is a gift and a talent, and you have to bear in mind that you are not going to know everything all the time.

Finding this particular interviewee was easy, as the person I chose to interview was my dad. It should be noted that my dad is actually a doctor, not a nurse, and nursing is the career that I am really interested in. However, nurses and doctors rely on one another in any setting, and I figured it would be nice to get a new perspective. As for the reason I chose to interview my dad specifically, it all comes down to his love for the job. I have never met anyone as passionate about working in the medical field as him and hearing him talk about the career he loves so much inspires me to want to be a good nurse and help people in the same way that he did. Although being a nurse and being a doctor as careers are slightly different, the motivation behind doing well at either of them is the same and I couldn’t think of anyone better to interview than my dad.

This interview helped reassure me that nursing was the right career for me. As I mentioned above, listening to my dad tell me stories about his job and how incredible it feels to help people who need it makes me want to be be able to do the same one day. It is by no means an easy career, which he reminded me of, but it is one that is unbelievably worthwhile.

Although nothing I learned particularly surprised me, it did reinforce several ideas about what I pictured people in the medical field to be like. As my dad said when he was telling me about skills needed to be a good doctor (or a good nurse), one must be patient, level-headed, always open to learning, and humble. These traits are all ones that I value greatly, so it was nice to be reminded that as a nurse, these are skills I would get to utilize as well as witness others utilize on a daily basis, and that it important to me. My dad also reminded me of the connection doctors and nurses get to make with their patients and about how much that meant to him. One of the main reasons I decided to become a nurse was because I wanted to be able to make an impact in someone’s life someday, to be able to watch people who were hurting or sick get better and be connected to them through that shared experience. Interviewing my dad reminded me that not only was that possible, but that as a nurse I would to be able to experience that feeling day in and day out.

One thing that I could still learn more about before absolutely deciding to be a nurse is more of a hands-on learning experience–I would like to be able to shadow a nurse long-term. Although being a nurse is very appealing to me based on what I’ve learned and what I’ve seen so far, I know actually working a career for a long time is vastly different from shadowing for one single day, so I’d like to be able to see what that is like.

Finally, the most helpful tool used this semester in helping me decide what I want to do was probably getting to talk to the other kids in my survey class at the end of every recitation. It was nice to have other people who were in the same position that I was to work through the confusion I was feeling. I got to sort out my options with them and our EXP peer mentor who were all very encouraging, and through that, I was able to see past all the pressure of just choosing any major and instead find one that was a good fit for me.