Reflection
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Mihir Bhakta Mrs. Gardner English 10 Honors, Period 1 13 February 2014 Reflection Through the course of this project, I learned many things about my nearing future especially in the complex medical field. In the process of finding my career as a cardiologist, I learned that many years of studying is required in order to succeed in this career and that I have to undergo at least two years of clinical rotations, three years of residency, and another four years of medical school after I graduated from college . I was pretty shocked at how long it takes to become a doctor since one must undergo treacherous hours of studying for years in preparation for the notorious MCAT exam (the SATs for medical students). I also found it surprising that not all cardiologists work with the heart- as in surgery. Dr. Punatar, of the cardiologists I contacted, professionalized in a completely different field of cardiology that did not require open heart surgery as most people stereotype the profession of cardiology to be all about open-heart surgery. In our phone call, he explicitly explained his vigorous studies in India in med school and even getting into the medical school in India since being in the medical field was in high competition even back when he applied for college. He briefly explained to me what clinical rotations were and what exactly does the term residency mean. He told me that clinical rotations are four weeks in which students receive
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a hands-on experience of what being a doctor or nurse is like within a few weeks in which a medical student fulfills many of the daily task a doctor would generally do. He also mentioned that twenty four rotations are required in order to fulfill that requirement to get a medical degree and he stated that being on rotation is actually attending a job since your rotation will consume your entire day so studying and doing school work really is not an option during that period of medical school. He also touched briefly on residency which on basic terms is basically where a student lived while receiving medical practices. Dr. Punatar enlightened me on the daily life of being a cardiologist as well. He begins his day with any appointments scheduled for that morning, and either runs his usual stress tests, and angiographies from his patients and later analyzes them and diagnoses some medication or prevention of getting a heart problem advice. I also emailed Dr. Nitish Badhwar from the Cardiology Department at University of California, San Francisco, however he never responded to my email. I did however ask him a series of questions regarding, what skills do I need to obtain, what degrees are needed, what is the daily life of a cardiologist and etc. Ultimately, my family was the driving force in me pursuing this career in the future. I have always been told by my grandfather that it would be his dream to see one of his grandchildren be his doctor someday, unfortunately he passed away last year. To be honest, becoming a cardiololgist was not the career I had in mind for my future, but after learning about how heart functions and how intriguing it is from my biology class, I gained a new passion for it. Also, I want to pursue this career because my family has a long history of heart related deaths and studying more extensively on something that could be my cause of death and
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learning and diagnosing ways to prevent deaths of my family and others is my new found goal in life.