Disappointment

The islands are calling us.

In the next few weeks, I will be resigning my position. I am really not looking forward to that moment and it will be a surprise to my boss. I have fully integrated myself into my current work environment as I am literally the only person with a certain skill set employed there. There will be a sense of disappointment when the time comes. They had high hopes for me and I have been happy there.

So, why leave? Well, from my previous posts, it is apparent that I am a med geek and really can not imagine doing anything else. If it wasn't for that small detail, I would probably not stray...

Speaking of which, I have been overwhelmed by the show of support for my decision to attend SGU. I have received kudos from my friends who are either medical students, physicians, or health officers. Since I hadn't told a lot of people about this process at all, I was a little nervous about what my medical friends would think. Surprisingly, most of them either know an SGU grad or have heard great things about the school and the clinical training. It was such an enormous relief.

Obviously, it was not an easy decision. Until just recently, I kept having these reoccurring doubts that I will be judged throughout my career for where I went to medical school. Every time those thoughts creeped in, I would pull up the recent SGU residency placement list and I was reassured. SGU grads have done well and have ended up in very competitive specialties as well as family and internal medicine. I am not sure about a specialty yet, but it is nice to know there are opportunities for us.

Also , every practicing physician must pass the USMLEs which consist of three "steps" of the US Medical Licensing Exam. It levels the field where international medical grads are tested on their level of training and preparation along with US grads. We are all competing against eachother so residency directors have an independent measure they can use to compare potential candidates, wherever they attended medical school.

So, two years of basic sciences in Grenada, two years of clinicals in the US, graduation (M.D at last!), then three to four years of residency and two or three years of fellowship. Wow, at least 9 years of training. Maybe I'll skip the fellowship....

Anyway, a journey of 9 years begins with one small minute.

I guess its time for the resignation letter....