On mentors and mentees

“Do you guys actually like having a mentee?”  An intern asks me this some time ago. The surgeon chuckles on the other side of the drapes.  You’d be forgiven for thinking we don’t want interns working with us. We release them to review tomorrow’s patients at 2PM. When on overnight call, we sometimes send them

A lot of queer stuff, basically

Hullo long-time readers, and new faces. I can hardly keep up with the wildness of our world’s current affairs (and my feelings about them). So, I’m taking a leaf out of Sam’s book** and sharing snippets that, well, I feel like sharing. We got married!  We are now officially “Wifeys for Lifey”. My wife (surreal!)

“Whatever You Decide To Be, Be A Teacher”

I recently had the opportunity to speak about medicine as a career at a local high school. It has been many years, and even as I narrow my fields of practice, I remain passionate about doing what I can to enable kids to make informed choices about their careers – and so that those who

Why I left private practice for the public sector

Some of the greatest psychological stressors are said to include breakups, death, moving house, and starting a new job. Sometimes we choose one or more of these willingly, and hope to hell that the payoff will be worth it. For two years, I worked in private general practice in Cape Town. The benefits of this kind

Why I Paed

Whenever I talk about my love for child health, and my intention to pursue it as a career, I get this kind of response:

“Oh, I could never work with kids. It just breaks my heart to see them suffer!”

A Key To Disillusionment In Work And Play

Shame, I feel sorry for us; because all we want is to belong, but somewhere along the line we have taught ourselves that to belong means to be among people who think like us; never realising how deprived such a community would be.

Lies They Tell You About Medicine

Canada’s The Globe and Mail recently published the piece, “Think medical school is for you? You’re probably wrong.” Trisha brought it to my attention with her great response piece here. While I think the author has some salient points, I disliked the strong undertones of the piece. It did get me thinking, though, how a

Medical School in South Africa: How does it work?

EDIT 4 July 2021: Hi! This remains one of the most popular posts on my blog, but please note that it was first written in 2013. While I like to think that my advice here is broadly applicable, things can and do change all the time. Do be sure to have a look around social

Journal Flashback: 2009_03_30

I wrote this last year. It may well be one of the most honest journal entries I have ever done. Whether I still feel the same and my opinions on these facts, now… are inconsequential and a matter for another day: A country requires many more doctors than there are people who have a calling