Belonging to\na patriarchal male dominated Indian society, I dared to step into a field of\nmedicine where a female doctor is looked upon as an absolute misfit. I hail\nfrom the state of Punjab, where the usual addressing to a female doctor is that\nof \u201csister\u201d (the word denoting nurse), hence awarding the precious pre-fix of \u201cDr.\u201d\nexclusively to the male counterparts. The\njourney of becoming an ER Physician begun with my 3 years of training in\nEmergency Medicine in a tertiary care hospital in New Delhi. Having finished residency training, I\nreturned to my home state to begin with the real challenges of practicing as an\nindependent Emergency Physician in the new job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This ride\nturned into a taxing one as I delivered twin sons and faced a long draining\nbattle of legal separation with my husband. \nWith no extended sympathy benefits, I successfully cleared the\nMRCEM(RCEM-UK) exams in my first attempt along with working and arduous court\nvisits. The relentless support rendered\nby my parents in raising the twin boys stands preciously indebted with in my\nlife. Taking the bold step of\ndissociating from an unworthy marriage was not only condemned by the society\nbut was also topped with endless expert judgements at job sphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being young,\npetite, short heighted and fair complexioned, I was welcomed by the previously\nexisting colleagues and hospital administrators with a harsh quote; \u201cOh, why\ndid you join ER? That\u2019s a place for male\ndoctors. Females do not work in such\nhighly volatile and tough zones!\u201d Used\nto the gender bias in our country, I smiled and took this with a pinch of salt\namongst the countless other taunts and opinions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not having\ngrey hair and being a woman, became a crime at the workplace. There was a\npainful initial distrust and absence of acknowledgment from the cross\nspecialties during communication regarding patients\u2019 clinical details. An additional reinforcement\/second talk with\nthe \u201cmale\u201d doctor on duty was sought by the consultants. However, I kept perseverance and persistence. Detailed patient assessment, crisp EKG interpretations,\nidentification and correction of acid-base disorders swiftly in ED, timely\nresuscitations, difficult intubations, central line insertions, excellent\ndocumentation and sincere effort to gel with the existing old male medical\nofficers started bearing its fruits. However,\nthis was just the beginning, hurdles were manifold. As we all know, or don\u2019t\nwe? The mountainous male EGO \u2013 often the\nroot cause of disastrous self assumptions, pent up frustrations, anger,\nannoyance and a baseless global dislike towards the female counterparts, not to\nforget dangerous one-sided love obsessions especially targeted towards the\n\u201csingle woman\u201d group! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides\nproving my worth clinically, I had to cater to the careful art of handling this\nbane of male ego! Not surprisingly, I face the same from male nurses and ground\nduty assistants, who recognize and abide by all pleasant\/unpleasant orders,\nreprimanding and pampering benefits coming from male colleagues but looked down\nupon and even amounting to resistance when it stems from me. There seems to be an ongoing chorus in the\nbackground in the form of regular opting for or searching for a male doctor in\nthe ED by the patients and attendants, with complete conviction that the female\nin blue scrubs must be a nurse or assistant or junior doctor. Staring,\ncommenting upon self declared competency skills and teasing are the only icings\non the cake in a society which dwells on the age old conception that a woman is\ndesigned to cook in kitchen and bear children and it is the male who will earn\nthe bread and get exposed to the outer world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My gradual\ntransformation into a mature, patient and tough EP has made me the In-charge of\nthe busiest ED of a tertiary care hospital of the region. Male doctors, quite\nsenior to me by age, but lacking adequate specialist degrees in emergency\nmedicine report to me and I enjoy a great camaraderie with them, obviously\nadmixed with few jealous souls. The best attitude change which I gifted myself\nhas been the technique of IGNORANCE (being updated and aware of everything but\nfiltration and ignorance for un-necessary inputs). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I talk of\nignorance<\/em>, this might seem to be a little word, but it does carry a huge\nin-depth impact on my day to day life and functioning in the society. I have\ngradually begun the art of conscious percolation of numerous comments, advices\nand discouraging taunts coming to me. This pertains to both personal and\nprofessional lives. Being at a senior level in a branch which has not yet been\nvery well accepted and developed in India compared to the west, a continuous\namount of non-sense administrative issues erupt on a daily basis. This not only\ndistracts you from your useful clinical output on floors, but also tends to\ndrain you mentally. However, ignoring the same has helped me to deliver more\nefficiently on floor and focus intensely on fruitful endeavors. The entire\npackage of a regressive thinking with respect to women in the Indian society,\ncoupled with a divorced status and leading a department in a peripheral area\nfor a novice specialty, walks with me hand in hand now. But to be able to\ndeliver my best, progress, do justice to my roles (personally and\nprofessionally), I have chosen the fine art of maintaining calm and moving\nahead on my dream path with perseverance. Complete trust in my being, focused\nhard work and a conviction towards \u201cNo Demotivation\u201d has kept my identity\nintact. As penned down by Robert Frost, \u201cAnd miles to go before I sleep\u2026!\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Belonging to a patriarchal male dominated Indian society, I dared to step into a field of medicine where a female doctor is looked upon as an absolute misfit. I hail from the state of Punjab, where the usual addressing to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":819,"featured_media":20181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"Dr. Tandon shares her her experience as a female emergency physician in India.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[707],"coauthors":[915],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n