We have a system of employing fourth year residents who possess MD or MS qualification and are capable of performing operations independently. Usually residents take these jobs for experience after qualification. These jobs are for six months, and each resident can do two such jobs. Fourth year residency in my institute is a coveted job, because gynecological surgical experience is quite good, facilities available are quite good, and there is a degree of independence that gives confidence for starting independent practice. This time a large number of residents applied, and according to rules, our doctors got selected preferentially. That was a month and half ago.
My hospital building is 80 years old, but a fine structure. It is a heritage building that requires special architects and contractors for repairs and renovation. It so happened that the repair work is scheduled to begin from the first of the next month. The gynecological operation theater is closed and the obstetric plus emergency operation theater is functioning. This is temporary and as soon as things got under way, we would start gynecological operations again, though in reduced quantity. This the residents did not understand, and I received five notices of resignation to be effective after a month. I called all the fourth year residents who had given the notices, and asked them why they wanted to resign, especially at a time when the institute was in the difficult process of vacating a whole building and managing the work in a very small space provided as replacement, especially in face of a large number of transfers of patients from peripheral hospitals. They told me they wanted to quit because there was no gynecological operative work.
I was a little upset, but did not show it. In normal voice and tone, I asked them if the institute had been inadequate in training them. They said no. Then I asked them if one would throw away one’s old mother and father because they were old, nonproductive and a burden. They did not say no, but did not say yes too. Then I asked them if the institute that trained them was not like their mother, and why would they abandon it when it needed them most. I asked if they knew life was a give and take, rather than just take, whether it was about stripping all one wanted from anyone or anything and then moving on or building relationships that would last. They did not answer. I asked them if they knew that because they took up these jobs, others who wanted these jobs could not take them, and these others would have stayed on and served the patients coming to this institute could not do so. Thus they had deprived these people of jobs, deprived the institute and its patients of service, and now by leaving they would be delivering a double whammy to the institute. Because there would not be any residents available midterm to take up jobs created by their resignations. There was no answer. I told them that their lack of integrity in sticking to a contract of six months would perhaps affect their future prospects of getting higher placements. They probably seemed willing to accept the risk. I told them I believed in not forcing anyone to stay on if they were unwilling, because I felt that if their hearts were not in it, they would not be as useful to the institute as they otherwise would be; though I could force them to stay anyway. I told them I would forward their notices to the Director and they were free to go, but it would perhaps help them in future if they changed their attitudes. They went away.
I am upset because the boys and girls we trained have no attachment for their institute and teachers. They just want to grab whatever they can and then move on without a sense of obligation, or a desire to give back anything. I am upset because there seems to be no integrity and character, just desire to get something. I am upset not because I lose anything in the bargain, but the generation that is the future of the country does not seem to be much good. I don’t know how to correct this, because these things need not be taught, they are to be felt from within and acted upon accordingly.
