Justin Roberts: My “Why” for Medicine
“Why medicine?” It was a question asked to me by the attending doctors of the Self Regional Montgomery Center for Family and Sports Medicine. It is also the first question asked when filling out a primary application for medical schools. At first, it was a surprisingly hard question to answer properly as there is not a one-size-fits-all answer to the question. One cannot answer the question properly without ever getting clinical experience, either. I thought I understood my ambitions, but I only fully realized why I wanted to be a doctor towards the end of my internship.
I was lucky enough to slot into an internship program at Self Regional Hospital’s Montgomery Center for Family Medicine and Sports Medicine. While it is under the title of “observership” I had far more hands-on experience with medicine than the title would have you believe. I learned to read and discern X-ray, MRI, CT, and ultrasound imaging, how to conduct special tests for soft tissue injuries, what blood and hormone markers should look like and what it could mean if they fell out of range, and a plethora of treatment modalities for the extensive problems people came to the clinic with. Not only was I able to learn all of this, but I was able to exercise my knowledge on about a dozen patients, three of which I was permitted to fully treat from entry to exit of the facility (with guidance from attending doctors, of course). Through observation and experience, I fully realized my ambitions and reasons for pursuing medicine.
An answer to the prior infamous question is often a cliché “I want to help people”, but one can help people in a thousand other ways besides giving a check up or shot. Truly, this answer differs from doctor to doctor as an orthopedic surgeon and family medicine doctor may both have MD behind their names but do entirely different things. For me, there was no one answer for this question, but they all lead to the same conclusion. I don’t want to only help people, I want to change their lives in a way that can only be done through medicine, something that I experienced and was allowed to propagate in the Montgomery Center.
There was a high schooler who I will call John. I saw a lot of myself in John; he and I were both athletes from small towns, a place where you play sports for the love of the game and nothing more. Also like me, John was prone to injury; tweaks, strains, and sprains were not foreign to him or me. He came in expecting to be told that he had received another of the former, get some ice and get back on the field. However, John caught a tough break. He explained his injury- catching his thumb on the jersey of another player and flinging it straight back, he experienced immediate pain accompanied by a muffled “pop”. The X-ray
we took of the thumb was absolutely clear; John had broken the back of his thumb in such a manner it had to be casted.
The attending doctor and I walked back to the room he was in and told him the news. Needless to say, he was not happy with the diagnosis. It meant he would need a half-arm cast to set his thumb and immobilize his hand for 2 months. John hung his head low and said that he understood. It was a busy day as usual, so the attending had to step out to handle other patients. I saw tears come from John’s eyes, so I sat down and stayed with him. For the moment, I just sat with him. After the moment passed, I asked him what his position was, if he wanted to play in college; he responded with a simple “I do, and linebacker.” Since I knew the area John was from, I also asked if his family had a farm and if he worked as a farmhand, to which he responded yes as well. I told him a little bit about myself afterwards and assured him that the cast would not interfere with his play on the field or his work on the farm. “It’s like a club on your arm. If anything, it helps” I told him. I managed to get a small chuckle out of him, although he was still upset.
The attending popped back through the door with the cast wrap in hand and we got started on it right away. The attending while wrapping the cast on him asked him like questions as I did before he came in, and in a few moments the cast set and the procedure was done. I directed John to the lobby and got him set up for a check up in a couple of months. I reassured him that the cast is temporary and was necessary to protect him and allow him to play. Before he left, I told him that stuff happens, and I told him “Hey, you know ladies love to sign casts, right?” He cracked a smile and left the building
This and many other interactions showed me what medicine truly was. Medicine is not just curing a disease; it is curing a patient. True medicine comes from a place of understanding exactly what a patient feels, not just the condition they present with. This experience and many, many others within Self Regional allowed me to fully answer the question of “why medicine” and equip me with tools that many are not able to receive prior to medical school.
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Justin Roberts hails from Ninety Six, South Carolina and is a biology major with a minor in chemistry. His breakaway was done at the Montgomery Center for Family and Sports Medicine at the Self Regional Hospital system of Greenwood, SC. Justin plans to one day become an MD and serve his home state of South Carolina where medicine is needed the most. Outside of studies, Justin is a powerlifter, peer tutor and academic coach, researcher in metabolism, and a fall weather enthusiast.