This is basically a message to all UK bound doctors, please read this, these thoughts have given me strength and i hope it helps you somehow! I am yet to leave for UK but this is based on general views of doctors at UK.
The joy of a hard working doctor has no bounds on clearing the PLAB1.
Wishes of congratulations come from all corners; the excitement of having cleared one step of an important exam takes time to sink in.
Then the person starts enquiring about books and possible dates, coaching, places where he can stay.
This leads him to contact all people at UK known to family and friends. Then the real picture starts emerging. Some people reply and some regular contacts seem to vanish into thin air ;-)
Still he doesnt loose hope, he sits for hours together on the computer, sending letters to consultants at UK requesting for clinical attachment. For every negative reply he gets, he sends 3 more requests for clinical attachment. His spirits are high in spite of the odds.
Then comes the time to book his PLAB Part 2 seat, book his coaching, he gets ready to battle the UK winter, shopping tops the 'TO DO' list.
All is set, the big days arrives he leaves his homeland for so called greener pastures, while there at UK he slogs it out at the coaching centre, he may have been a king back home but the bitter reality starts staring him straight into his eye.
He clears the PLAB Part 2, there is joy, the emotional burden which he was carrying on his shoulders eases and the vigour and vitality returns. After a long wait for criminal verification is over, he starts clinical attachment with full enthusiasm.
This attachment gets over; he tries for another and another.
His resources, his stores are getting depleted, then he feels the crunch, he has no job, no security and nothing to fall back on in case he returns, all seems dark but that ray of hope is still shining in the distance.
Months pass, but that first job is still a mirage.
Where does he go from there, what should he do?
My advice to all is dont stretch yourself till you feel your going to snap, man is like an elastic band which can only be stretched to a certain extent.
Realise this fact that you have tried your best, in case you dont succeed it is not your failure; it just goes to show that the system could not accommodate you in the time frame you had set for yourself.
At this stage instead of loosing hope, gather yourself and arise from this situation, find solutions (in fact i would suggest all of you to plan your trip in such a way that even if you have to return back to your country, you do so in such a way that you give yourself enough time to plan for something else without giving yourself too much time to sit and dissect what went wrong at UK).
I hope and pray that whoever tires their level best at UK gets what they want but in case you dont, please dont feel dejected, be like the phoenix which arose from its ashes to fly higher than before.
Failure is all in your mind, if you believe you have failed then you have failed, if you believe that you have learnt something from the experience of staying at UK and have returned out of your own free will you can consider yourself a WINNER of sorts.
One article I had read had the caption, "end of Indian holiday, what I believe is that if you consider it a holiday then I guess it doesnt matter as one day every holiday has to end, and just in case you have one bad holiday you can make up for it by having another one.
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