Orientation

Last week, GW, HC and SW were discussing what to say on the university orientation day. They were quite surprised when they learned that I did not have to speak at the sharing sessions. After all, the Faculty even invited colleagues who graduated from other medical schools.

I explained that I talked at one of those occasions four years ago. My speech could be summarized as follows:

“Dear students and parents, thank you for coming to our university today. When you go through different exhibitions, you would be wondering what career to pursue and which university to enter. What a question. If you come twenty years ago, many people would tell you that doctors could make a fortune. Not anymore. Although doctors are still whining about manpower shortage, it is clear that many new doctors are produced every year. It does not take a deep knowledge in economics to understand that the income of doctors will decline significantly in the years to come. Take the private market for example; newcomers are already earning less than half of their predecessors.

“This to me is a good thing. High achievers who wish to earn as much as possible are better off doing businesses primarily about money. This is better than trying to get the same amount out of our patients’ pockets. At the end of the day, I hope that those of you who choose to enter our medical school will instead focus on serving the public and improving medical care. Thank you very much.”

After these years, I can elaborate much more on this topic. For some uncertain reasons, however, no one invites me to talk again.