Chapter 1: Middle-aged Attending Physician
July, Long County, night.
The air conditioner’s cold wind blew against the baffle of the air conditioner, making a slight clanging sound.
“You want to transfer from Orthopedics to the Emergency Department?”
Not far from the County People’s Hospital on Yuelu Avenue, in the Gaojiapo Residential Area, Uncle Lu Nanyong slammed the table, his eyes glaring: “Who do you think you are? What exactly are you?”
“Did Shanghai Huashan Hospital not accepting you, an undergraduate student, for postgraduate studies affect its status?”
“Did Hanshi University Zhongnan Hospital ignoring you, a trainee who doesn’t want to pursue a master’s degree at their institution, affect its normal operations?”
“Did the Orthopedics Department of Zhou People’s Hospital look down on your academic qualifications, causing it to collapse?”
“You’ve only been well-behaved for a few years? And now you’re causing trouble again?”
“Haven’t you had enough severe beatings from society? You’re still acting so willfully…”
“You’re an attending physician, you still have a long future ahead, there will always be opportunities for you.”
Lu Nanyong pushed his glasses up with his left hand and pointed at Lu Cheng’s nose with his right, spittle flying: “Don’t think that just because your parents are uneducated and let you run wild, you can do whatever you want!!”
“Stay honestly in Orthopedics. After some time, I’ll find another opportunity to have a drink with your department director… and then I’ll think of a good way for you…”
Lu Cheng sat opposite, his expression and tone calm: “Uncle, it’s no use.”
“Staying in Orthopedics is a dead end, with no chance for me to perform surgery.”
“Not to mention that in our department, besides Director Peng, there are five deputy chief physicians vying for surgeries. In June this year, Director Peng’s son returned after graduating with a master’s degree from Xiangya Second Hospital.”
“You know the status of those other deputy chief physicians.”
“I won’t even get a chance to stitch skin! Let alone perform actual surgery.”
“Uncle, I am a surgeon, I need to accumulate surgical volume to practice my skills.”
“My skills won’t improve just by reading books and writing medical records.” Lu Cheng wasn’t shouting, but analyzing calmly.
Lu Nanyong was also a doctor, but a Chinese medicine doctor at the County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. He was the relative with the most ‘status’ in the family and the elder who could guide Lu Cheng.
Lu Cheng was an orthopedic doctor at the Long County People’s Hospital, a permanent staff member.
“Then what surgical volume can you accumulate in the Emergency Department? What skills can you learn?”
“What surgeries can your hospital’s Emergency Department perform?” Lu Nanyong didn’t refute Lu Cheng’s words but questioned him!
Lu Cheng replied: “Uncle, perhaps not before, but now you can.”
“Our hospital is a medical alliance partner of Xiangya Second Hospital. Associate Professor Chen Song from Xiangya Second Hospital’s Emergency Surgery is currently coming down to the countryside to provide support and will be stationed in the Emergency Department.”
“According to the hospital’s intention, in principle, any surgery that a specialty department cannot perform can be done by Professor Chen Song!”
It is difficult for doctors to get a promotion of professional title. It not only requires academic qualifications and papers, but also requires further training and support to rural areas.
“What about after Professor Chen leaves? Don’t you know the nature of such rural support?”
“How many doctors who go to the countryside stay in the hospital and diligently perform surgery? They just visit, and it’s a good week if they can do surgery for one day.”
“Even if you did a background check beforehand, this Professor Chen is different from others, but he will leave eventually.”
“After he leaves, won’t the Emergency Department be the same as before?”
“At most half a year, or even only three months, what can you learn?”
Lu Cheng narrowed his eyes and looked at the panel that only he could see:
【 Great Doctor System: Comprehensive Level （ Resident Physician ）】
【 Corrected postoperative medication through medical orders, reducing the incidence of patient gastric ulcers, gained 0.1 skill points. 】
【 Avoided postoperative infection by dressing changes, gained 0.2 skill points. 】
【… 】
【 Completed one debridement, gained 0.6 skill points. 】
【 Remaining skill points: 13 points. 】
Lu Cheng discovered he had awakened this system half a month ago.
However, the patient volume in the county hospital was not large, and the surgical volume in Orthopedics was very small. The only time Lu Cheng gained a single-digit increase in skill points was from a minor emergency debridement he handled alone at night during his shift.
In Orthopedics, several deputy chief physicians vied for surgeries, first for performance, and second for future roles as department directors; they were all eager and well-connected.
Lu Cheng’s uncle was just a Chinese medicine doctor in the County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. He had some connections, but they were useless.
An attending physician who couldn’t even accumulate surgical volume was immediately exposed under the panel’s strength assessment, and the words “resident physician” kept stinging Lu Cheng’s cerebral cortex.
“That’s still better than staying in Orthopedics! At least I can do debridement and appendectomies, small surgeries, better than waiting in line in Orthopedics to serve those big brothers.”
Lu Cheng’s mouth twitched as he said this: “Uncle, surgery requires manual dexterity, not flattering to improve skills.”
“I’ve been dealing with social graces in the department for four years, not one or two years, but four or five years, and it’s useless! I know it’s useless!”
“Putting aside fighting for surgeries to compete for the director position, just on the principle of more work means more performance for chief surgeons, what relation do these surgeries have to me…”
“Just staying home and reading books won’t develop surgical skills. Uncle.” Lu Cheng’s breathing became rapid and disordered.
Returning to the county hospital, life was indeed comfortable. If you wanted to lie flat forever, just wanting to earn a little money, to be content with mediocrity, it couldn’t be more comfortable.
If you don’t want to lead others, then you are a leader for everyone.
But such doctors are not as fulfilling as junior doctors who give patients infusions and injections; they are just skilled laborers ‘writing medical records’ for the department, utterly useless.
“But once you leave Orthopedics, you won’t have a chance to return, Lu Cheng, do you understand what your uncle means?”
Lu Nanyong also put on a pained expression and said.
Being a doctor is indeed about relying on one’s abilities, and this is true nationwide. As long as you are excellent enough, you can get by anywhere!
Even if your skills are good enough, and you can perform surgeries that even top professors can’t, those top professors will treat you politely.
But how can such a ridiculous, ‘wishful thinking’ contrast be realized?
Where will medical technology come from if you don’t learn it? Will it spontaneously generate?
How can you become proficient and skilled in medical technology if you don’t practice it? Is reading alone enough?
Lu Cheng certainly has some talent, but this talent is not enough, and his luck is also poor. It’s not enough to support him to stand on his own and emerge suddenly. He can only be crushed into pieces by social graces, unable to breathe.
In fact, connections are not scary. What’s scary is if you are not much stronger than those with connections! Then all that’s left for you is despair!!
Lu Cheng nodded, his clear and handsome face regained its composure, and he said in a low voice: “Uncle, if I say I don’t want to end up like you my whole life, can you not be angry?”
“Big hospitals currently prioritize academic qualifications and scientific research, while small places prioritize results.”
“I know you mean well, but learning skills requires ‘tinkering’.”
“I’ve suffered losses for so many years, I know this very well.”
“If my academic qualifications aren’t improved and I don’t have a ‘master-disciple’ relationship with a teacher, why would anyone teach me skills?”
“Without sufficient patient volume and operation volume, how can I practice my skills?”
“People like us, ordinary people, can only go to the most difficult and arduous places, diligently practice our skills and theories, to have a chance to become better doctors.”
Hearing this, Lu Nanyong glanced at Lu Cheng: “You know all these principles?”
“Why did you fail the second round of the postgraduate entrance examination back then?”
“Why were you unwilling to retake it later?”
Lu Cheng’s tone resolutely shifted: “Uncle, those things are in the past. Discussing them now is meaningless. We need to focus on the present.”
“What I want to see now is to go to the Emergency Department, see if I can learn some skills from Professor Chen Song, and get some surgeries under my belt first.”
“No matter how much workplace politics there is in the hospital, it is still a hospital. As long as I can perform surgeries that others cannot, I will have my own stage.”
“Competing with others in technically mature surgeries in the hospital will leave me cold; the cold bench will give me frostbitten buttocks!”
“Uncle, don’t tell my parents about these things. They can’t help even if they know, and it will just make them upset.” Lu Cheng added.
People shouldn’t dwell on the past; the most useless thing is to think about the past. People should either live in the present or live at the mercy of circumstances.
Lu Nanyong shrugged his high forehead and said stubbornly: “I know… you back then?”
Lu Cheng smiled, his tone finally a bit pale: “Uncle, it’s already 2023, not 2014 or 2015 anymore. I’m thirty, no longer the young man of twenty-three or twenty-four back then. Talking about the past is meaningless…”
“Currently, going to the Emergency Department to learn some new skills to break through the deadlock is the best choice for me at thirty.”
“And it must be done during the time Professor Chen Song is here supporting the countryside!”
“Other than this, no other path is correct!~”
“This time it’s not me being willful, I’ve thought it through deeply.”
