Ready for a career change? Swallow your pride, push through

At times, passion drives people to great lengths and, as they travel the path to their highest ideals, they discover themselves along the way.

As a qualified dietitian, I found myself challenged to help the scores of people I encountered as a foot soldier in primary health care. But, seeing all the gaps and problems, I decided to follow the only career that I believe could solve those problems: a career as a doctor.

As a 38-year-old mother of two toddlers, tackling medicine has been tough, but I made it to my final year.

Medicine is my third qualification. I already have a BSc in dietetics and a diploma in project management. Medicine was, perhaps, something I wanted to do from the beginning, but dietetics sounded more exotic, so I tried it. In dietetics, you also need a good grasp of basic sciences.

I left the dietetics field because you must slave away before you reap the rewards. For instance, I did not see entering private practice as the way to go. Most people, even in public practice, do not consult you about their diets unless they are referred by a doctor.

Worse still, they don’t return for follow-up appointments unless you’re giving out food parcels. Also, very disheartening, is the fact that many people talk about diet as if they are gurus in the field when they do not really have the expertise.

Caring for the community

However, before I could make the decision to switch to medicine, it was necessary to first experience life as a dietitian. I worked in a local service area (LSA) in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province.

The LSA is like a head office for clinics in the department of health.

I loved it there because they were really geared. You would get whatever you needed for work, and you were more involved in managing the resources of your job. The community work was dependent on what the LSA was doing. If they had a target, I focused on that target.

In some severely poor areas, most kids were malnourished, so we tried to take care of that before anything else. Sometimes you would be involved in dental, TB care, HIV care, and other drives led by the LSA. We catered to the community needs. If it was circumcision season, we would focus on that.

When I was practising dietetics, I realised that people were deferring to the doctor for an opinion on almost any problem – from physiological to physical, even about issues doctors know little about.

The doctors were the point people. Whereas you (as the dietitian) managed the patient, the doctor was directing treatment and did not always know what the dietitian was doing.

So, you would observe these pockets of kids who were malnourished and who needed help and it was not just with their diet. They needed grants, dental assistance and other urgent interventions.

As part of the nutrition team, I felt that we were not proactive. So, I thought if I dealt with the kids directly as a doctor these drives to provide health care would not miss most of them. Because I saw the gaps, it was a natural progression to what I am studying now.

Life as a mature student is complicated

My routine is not set in stone. I go to classes every day. Sometimes you must respond to calls where you learn about patients. You also have to do practical work in the hospitals or clinics.

It might mean that you work through the night, or get some sleep and wake up just before lectures.

It is a lot of work because you must read incessantly to keep up with the current trends, and the guidelines keep changing.

You must read; you must read, and you must read. You must keep up, and you cannot fall behind as it is not an excuse to say you do not know something. I also must keep up with my other responsibilities. The world doesn’t stop because I have a mountain of work.

Before working on my studies, I must take care of little people – my children. As an older student, I have a household to take care of. If you have parents, you will have to take care of them, too.

You must get groceries, do homework, go shopping for school uniforms, look for schools and look for work that you can do. You must manage your time properly.

Some lecturers are understanding, and some are horrible. But, let me add, there are some doctors who are nice. They try to help you as much as possible with the work and try to find out if you have any other problems besides schoolwork.

These doctors help you manage your time and give you tips. The nice people, however, are few and far between.

What does the future hold?

I am not sure what I will specialise in. Inspired by the children’s plight, it was originally paediatrics, but then I developed an interest in forensics. It changes every year, to be honest, so I’ll see when I finish.

At home most of us (we are three sisters) are pursuing studies related to health and we also have this dream of having a health centre. One sister already has her own pharmacy and is waiting for me to complete my studies. My other sister is a dental assistant.

I also have a vision for business in general. I feel that, even if you are doing medicine, you can still do business-related jobs.

Whichever way you look at it, you still have to know how to manage a business, whether you run your own business, work as a doctor, or work in another full-time job.

But I am hopeful that it will all work out.

If you really want to study to follow a new career path, you will have to adjust and change some things. Like, if you cannot afford your car payments, you will have to let the car go.

You will have to ask for financial support from friends and family. It is annoying for some family to ask for that type of support, so you must throw away your pride and ask. But push through. In the end you will reap the rewards.

Zandy Dunn is a final-year medical student at Walter Sisulu University in Mthatha in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province. She spoke to Brian Khoza.