Now many students are confused about what to do and which branch to take, and all of us can share our input and maybe guide the students. The interesting thing is everybody would walk to me and say, “I will take up medicine, I will take up surgery, I will take up ortho, I will take up everything, and at the end, I got the radio.” I took the radio. After a month, the story ends here, so I don’t know how it goes.
There are two things which I realize are very very important here what I feel. One question that students have in mind is MDMS versus DNB.
The second is the first option I am getting MDMS in another branch but I wanted something which I’m getting in DNB.
The third point that people talk about is the saturation in branches and if it’s not an end branch about the future exams. What I tell you is if you love a branch take it whatever you’re getting. Dr. Praveen already has made a video on the same and he has also posted multiple times on the same.
If you know what you want it is absolutely to choose. It is just like if you know the person whom to marry the venue doesn’t matter. Choose the branch that you wish, that is all.
Second, the saturation point is asked to me a lot in orthopedics. Look a branch which is evolving with technology will never be saturated. There will be something coming up now and then.
Knee replacement came, then the computer came, and then the robot came. If you keep on updating yourself you can never die. So any branch is there you will always survive and progress.
I saw a beautiful post today in the morning which was about Amitabh Bachchan riding a bike. There is a tempo behind and there is a scooter behind. Amitabh Bachchan is the only one out of the four things which kept on evolving and is still surviving.
So whatever branch you take you should keep evolving. Look at the example, you know what Goga bhai said, He took up a branch and he killed it. Then everything was killed with it.
He started teaching on the board and was the pioneer of going online in the medical world. So this is how you do it. You know, you look at Dr. Vivek sir and he kept on creating book after book and book after book and kept on studying.
Whereas guide books are replacing actually the textbooks. I know he doesn’t like me saying that but no one can change the truth. So I think we go to Dr. Dilip, sir.
Sir, there are certain things you would like to share about medicine as a career and as a physician. Because if somebody comes to me, if you remember, if you look at AIIMS counselling, this is the first seat that gets over. It has been perennial throughout.
Right Zainab Ma’am? This is the first seat that gets over. Medicine gets over the radio. I was kind of ranked 32 in the AIIMS New Delhi exam during those days and I couldn’t get medicine, honestly.
So this is something that’s one of the most sorted fields. I mean, whether you believe it or not, whether you have studied medicine as an undergraduate or not, anyway, you wanted to take up medicine somehow. So I think like first thing I wanted to say is the difference between the MD and DNBs.
Because this is a question that I’ve been keeping on getting. So whether it’s okay or not okay. So I can say from the perspective of what I’ve seen in the DNB hospitals the last maybe 10-12 years since I started practising.
Before that, I didn’t have any exposure because I’d been working only in the government. But what I’ve seen with DNB is kind of a more transparent environment because generally, you don’t get the toxicity that you get in government hospitals sometimes. So it’s a more transparent environment.
Consultants will be there. Yes, of course, you will not get more chances in the sense you will not get sometimes hands-on training maybe in the first one, or two years. That’s true.
But you get to learn from a medical perspective. I think surgical perspective, Amrit sir is there to explain. But at least from a medical point of view, I can say the advantages are more with a DNB compared to an of MD.
So if, I mean, in the last five years if you see there is no stigma with regards to MD and DNB. Both guys are getting paid in the same fashion, almost very similar. In fact, there are a lot of DNB guys I can say who are actually earning more than what I’m making right now.
So it’s, I mean, the difference is no longer existing. That’s what I want to say. The most important.
So if you guys have that stigma about whether to choose MD versus DNB if you’re getting DNB, well and good. Just go ahead. If it’s a good hospital, just discuss it with the people over there.
And if you’re okay with that, I would say like just go with it. I mean, it should not restrict anything. And I don’t think DNB has bonds either.
You don’t have any bonds also. So like at least in government hospitals, you do have some bonds. For example, if you do in TN, you have two years bond.
You have to do that. Or if you have to break it, you have to pay money. But DNB hospitals don’t screw you with any bonds as well.
And probably two things that people get scared of in DNB are maybe the pass percentage. But trust me, guys, I’ve been a mock examiner and in fact, an examiner in DNB exams for so long. And what I’ve seen the trend in the last maybe five years is students who are good are supposed to pass.
It’s not like, I mean, MD at least you’ll be some favorites for some professors or some master’s professors. So that favourite is somewhat not being favourites may be an issue. But in DNB, that issue is not there because your exam is going to be somewhere else.
And if you’re really good, if you’re really prepared well, you are bound to pass and nobody can fail you. And most of the time exams are going to happen in a very neutral fashion. And it’s just about whether you’re prepared well or not prepared well, that’s it.
Nothing more. And I mean, that’s the one point. The first thing about the MD and the DNB.
So my opinion, if you get a DNB in a decent hospital, just go for it. Don’t stop just because you’re not getting anything. And second, coming to the point of why you should take internal medicine.
So I have certain features to say like why you need internal medicine and why you don’t want to take internal medicine. So I’ll say some points. So why you should take internal medicine?
First is the scope of practice. It has a very broad and wide range of practice in the sense you can be a GP. You can be a specialist.
You can be anything, wherever you want. You can practice in metropolitan cities. You can practice in secondary cities. You can practice in villages. You can practice in your own home. You can do your setup in your own home. As simple as that. So the scope of practice is huge. It’s unimaginable.
You can practice anywhere and everywhere if your ambitions are a bit low. And second is, of course, the intellect. So obviously, most of the time medicine guys are seen as people who think a lot.
And obviously, you get that respect in the hospital as well. For example, in my hospital, whatever may be the problem, or maybe it’s an obs gyane problem, or surgical issues, or orthopedics issues, or whatever may be the issues, even non-clinical branches. For example, take my pathologist micropolice or radiologist.
All of them come to me. It’s the first opinion. So they see you as a very intellectual guy.
If you’re good at it, definitely they’ll see you as an intellectual guy. So that’s what medicine guys think at least. Dilip sir, ortho, surgery, and gyneos people come to you for intellect advice.
Okay, noted, sir. We will talk to you. Yes, sir.
I mean, I’m not saying intellect advice, but the routine, sir. Most of their families, I’m only taking care of. This session may go in a very different direction.
Sir, ortho people are not considered to be intelligent at all. Sir, I want to say something. They’re not coming to talk to you.
Dilip sir, I have two questions for you, Dilip sir. You said that DNB medicine is as good, but do you think that in the majority of the hospitals, the teaching, I mean, teaching may be very rudimentary even in the MD courses, but there has to be some teaching at least. Do you think that when it comes to teaching, maybe MD would be better than DNB? I guess that’s my perspective from the people that I’ve seen around.
So in Chennai, if you see, my hospital also has a DNB, not in medicine, but we have it in pediatrics. And if you see, there is another hospital called Sundaram Medical Foundation. And for pediatrics, there’s another hospital called Child Trust.
Honestly, they do really well. They teach very well. And there are good teachers.
And most of these teachers are actually retired professors from the government hospitals. And those are the ones who are like after retirement, they come here and they start the practice. So it depends again, obviously, I don’t know exactly about all the institutes, but what I’ve seen like they do a good amount of teaching.
The only surgical branch where they don’t get good opportunities. That’s absolutely true. But when it comes to medicine, most of the things, it’s something that we observe and learn according to them.
The past percentage, do we have any quantification? I mean, a couple of years back, it used to be very dismal. So I’m not sure if that has changed or not. I mean, are we hitting 50%, or 60% now? Yes, sir.
I mean, when I go as an examiner, one thing I find is like people who really fail are people who don’t know anything. And like very basics of basic questions. For example, I used to ask, maybe we start at an MBBS level, at a final MBBS level, the same level we ask the question.
But once the candidate is not able to answer those questions, that is where they fail. So generally, they don’t fail. For example, last time in our hospital, the exam was conducted seven people out of 10 passed.
I mean, that’s a big number compared to the overall number. Seven out of 10 passed. And the remaining three who failed were basically people who didn’t answer well at all.
It all depends on like probably the knowledge. I don’t think they purposefully fail in DNB. Like in MBBS, it may be possible, I feel.
Maybe if you don’t want college. In the past, the numbers used to be really bad. 10%, 20% passed.
Now it’s better, I guess. Now it’s improving. If it’s better, then it’s good.
Because many people are taking up MBBS. I mean, DNB nowadays. I mean, they are good students.
They are also sometimes boldly taking up DNB. She took DNB in Gangaram hospital. 350 rank only.
I mean, she was getting everything. But yes, I remember she took DNB in Gangaram Hospital. Very good students.
In fact, last year, we had a DNB pediatrics candidate who scored like some 2,100 ranks. Like he would have easily got MD pediatrics, but he took DNB pediatrics at Child Trust Hospital. Like I can give so many examples.
Students are now good. Students are also preferring DNB. I think one of the reasons is the bond.
There is no bond. No bond. Absolutely no bond.
And you get exposed. I would say like the environment is more neater, less toxic. And you don’t have a lot of colleague pressure.
Because there are very limited students. You don’t have so many units to work on. What are the disadvantages of DNB? I mean, you have said all the positive things.
What are the bad things about DNB? The bad thing is only depending on the hospital, the exposure may be very poor. And again, in this individualized approach, but at least in MD, you will have a whole group of people to work up. So one person is not teaching, another person might still be doing something.
But here it’s totally consultant-based. If the consultant is not good, if he’s not speaking anything at all, and he’s supposed to be like that for the next three years. So in DNB, are we supposed to work with only one consultant? It depends on the hospital again, sir.
Many times like some people may like somebody and they keep with them. The resident is good. So those kinds of things might happen.
But generally, sir, they do have rotation posting. They have specialty postings, everything. Cardio and neuro.
Just like what you have in MD, everything is there in DNB also. The only, maybe another con I can say is the caseload exposure. Definitely it will be less.
It will be just one-tenth of what you see in MD. Yeah.
