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GENERATIONAL
PERSPECTIVES

HOW TO GET YOUR KIDS

TO BE DOCTORS

By Ravi Ganeshappa, MD

So how do you get your child to always had good things to say about him. He may have worked long
become a doctor? And how do you hours, nevertheless, it all seemed worth it.
get all three of your children to be
doctors? The answer is quite simple. The key is you must enjoy what you do. We lead by example.
Do nothing. You don’t have to tell someone something when they can simply
see it for their own eyes. I saw a similar phenomenon during res-
It almost seems counterintuitive, idency.
however, that is exactly how my two
sisters and I all went into medicine. As an Internal Medicine intern at a busy county hospital at
Dad was pretty sneaky. He didn’t Parkland in Dallas, at times I was absolutely miserable. You go
say a word. There was no push that you should become a doctor. into survival mode. You are not always a very pleasant person in
There was no touting of the benefits of going into medicine. such a situation. Naturally, very few of the medical students I
Rather, there was an intentional silence. worked with chose to go into Internal Medicine.
Dad enjoyed being a doctor. He enjoyed helping people. On oc-
casion, I would go with him to the hospital when I was younger. During my second and third years, I was much happier. I en-
Mostly I hung out in the doctor’s lounge and enjoyed the free snacks. joyed my training. I enjoyed teaching the interns and students…
Other times, I would go with him on the ward or to the GI lab. You and sometimes the faculty ☺ In turn, many more of our medical
could see his patients and the staff were all happy to see him. They students chose to go into Internal Medicine.

It was then that I understood his ways. And I would like to think
I have adopted them. Although there are differences in generations,

20 San Antonio Medicine • June 2017