If you’re considering a career in medicine, you’ve likely heard plenty of advice centered around how to achieve that goal. Primers for prospective medical school students are full of the importance of earning good grades, making oneself appealing to schools, and otherwise accruing relevant knowledge to be used towards one’s degree. However, while these primers can be detailed on “how” to achieve the goal, they often neglect to pay enough attention to “why” you want to achieve it. Since your passion for a pursuit can play such a critical role in success, we’ve turned to the work of Dr. Alddo Molinar to develop a better appreciation for the “why” of becoming a doctor.
Power of passion
One of the reasons passion can be such an essential trait for a doctor or any medical professional is due to the career’s difficulty. It’s no secret that physicians often work long hours and can be on-call even when they’re not at work. Their time at work can be difficult as well, with many of them working with patients who are in an especially difficult time in their lives. Many doctors may also encounter patients when they are in an extremely precarious health condition where their very lives may be at stake. Taken together, these realities of the profession can put immense stress and strain on an individual practitioner.
That’s where passion can come to a medical professional’s aid. When times become difficult, and there may be a temptation to give up, deeply held conviction can remind you why you endeavored on this path in the first place. Passion can help guide you through these tough times and move you in the right direction when you’ve lost your way. It can also give you the motivation to go the extra mile to accomplish your goals truly. For these reasons and more, following your passion, or working to develop it, can be a crucial component of building a successful career in the field of medicine.
Early life
With all that in mind, however, one thing to understand is that passion is rarely informed by only a single source. Instead, a person’s passion for their pursuit may develop from a number of different life experiences. In the case of Dr. Alddo Molinar, one relevant experience came early in his life when one of his family members was tragically diagnosed with a form of cancer that was particularly difficult to treat. The young child felt helpless as he watched his family member undergoing increasingly more aggressive treatments that seemed to have little effect on their illness.
The future doctor also took note of the effect of the illness not only on the patient but also on the rest of the family. As a leader in his family unit became sicker and sicker, he internalized just how difficult and widespread the toll of a severe illness can be. Though it was the patient who was devastated by the disease, the rest of the family suffered as well.
This early experience helped to inform his sense of what he wanted to do with his life. He felt confident that there was an important place for him in the world that centered around reducing the amount of suffering felt by others. He also noted the drive of medical professionals to make this a reality. It was not only a formative experience that he would come back to again and again throughout his career, but it was also the first true clue of what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.
Work in the field
Another way that the doctor developed his passion for his career before he formally entered the medical field was to shadow medical professionals and get a feel for their work. This is a common practice that can do wonders to familiarize a person with the realities of a career in a chosen concentration. By seeing how actual professionals conduct their days, a person can better understand what their own life might be like if they were to direct their profession towards such an undertaking.
The practice can also help to develop the all-important passion a person has for their work, should they choose to continue along their path. That’s because they can begin to see what motivates other practitioners in the field and can examine for themselves if such a motivation might fit for themselves. In this way, they can see the ups and downs of a typical career and see what techniques working professionals use to remind themselves of why they got into the work in the first place. By following the example set by those who have excelled in a medical career, a prospective student can better equip themselves to take advantage of their innate passion.
Value of training
One more critical place that Dr. Alddo Molinar was able to gain a passion for this work was during his formal education, including his residency and fellowship at the renowned Cleveland Clinic. His time training at the medical center helped not only instill a sense of passion for his primary specialty, but also afforded him the ability to build his interest in many subspecialties. These included critical care medicine and cardiovascular intensive care.
Building a diverse range of passions within one’s chosen profession in the above manner can create resiliency in a person’s motivation. When one area of your work may be less than satisfying, a well-rounded practitioner can lean more heavily on another passion for the time being. Then, as life naturally shifts, the original passion may express itself more firmly at a later time. The result is a more stable way to motivate yourself through the ups and downs of a demanding profession.
While many preparatory materials for a career in medicine focus on the logistical details of achieving such a career, it’s not uncommon for them to pay little attention to the passion that may sustain you through such a career. The above look at the work of Dr. Alddo Molinar provides a real-world example of not only some of the ways he’s stoked his passion for his work, but also how that passion benefits medical professionals. Consider placing importance on building the trait in yourself as you navigate a potential career in medicine and beyond.