General Practitioner - The most difficult major in Vietnam

(Baonghean) - Not only do the entrance scores often rank high, but after entering university, future doctors must continue to struggle in a new 6-year race. During this time, medical students, especially general practitioners, seem to only know how to study and take exams.

At nearly 12 noon, just after finishing her morning class, Le Thi Thu Huyen (19 years old, from Nghi Thinh commune, Nghi Loc), hurriedly went down to the dormitory yard of Hanoi Medical University with her friends to review her lessons. Huyen's group is a second-year student of the General Medicine major (Y2, Hanoi Medical University). At this time, the rows of stone tables and chairs in the yard were almost full of students studying in groups. After a long time, Huyen and her group of friends from Nghe An province finally found an empty spot. The whole corner of the dormitory yard looked like a lecture hall with the murmuring sounds of students studying.

Like Huyen, because they had to arrive early to get a cool spot, some students who came home from their morning classes only had time to quickly grab a bowl of instant noodles or a sandwich before rushing back down to the yard. Many didn’t even have time to change their clothes.

Le Thi Thu Huyen, a second-year student majoring in general medicine. Photo: Tien Hung

“At 1:30 p.m. we go back to class for the afternoon session, so the whole group has to prepare lessons in advance. That’s how general medicine students are, they only study and take exams all year round,” Huyen said. The amount of knowledge is too much, both theory and practice, so general medicine students have very little time to rest. Unlike many other majors, the curriculum for this major is usually calculated by weight, instead of books. This is considered the most difficult major in Vietnam.

Carrying a heavy backpack filled with textbooks, Phan Duy Phuc (19 years old, from Nghi Phu commune, Vinh city) said that if he neglects his studies for even a short time, he will risk falling behind his classmates.

With a small figure, a haggard face and thick glasses, this male student always looks tired. Since entering school, Phuc has only known how to study and study all day. Phuc is a former student of Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted (Vinh City). For many years, he was a national excellent student, passing the entrance exam to this major with very high scores. However, Phuc said that it no longer meant anything since he entered university. "Most of the students here are valedictorians and salutatorians of high schools. Everyone is good, compared to them, I am nothing," Phuc said.

A group of students from Nghe An province take advantage of the afternoon to study in the dormitory grounds. Photo: Tien Hung

Similar to the image below, the library of Hanoi Medical University, which is hundreds of square meters wide, is always crowded with students coming to review their lessons. The library is located on the third floor of the school's dormitory for the convenience of students. Most of them are general medicine students. "On exam days, to get into the library to study, students have to wake up early and line up in long lines. General medicine students are very studious, they seem to study all day," said Ms. Phi Thi Le Hang - Deputy Head of the Library Department of Hanoi Medical University.

“The room is too cramped and there is no atmosphere for studying. We go to the library, where we have enough documents and it is quiet to study better,” said Nguyen Thi Hoang Linh (23 years old, from Dien Chau, Nghe An). Hoang Linh is currently a fourth-year student majoring in general medicine. Linh said that at 7 a.m., she has to be at the hospital for clinical classes. At noon, she rests a little and then continues to go to the lecture hall to study theory. In the evening, the students have to go to the hospital on duty. “From the second semester of the third year, we have to study clinical classes, then pathology classes... so it is very stressful. The knowledge is too vast,” Linh said, adding that she has witnessed many students who are too pressured during their studies, leading to depression. Some others even had to drop out and switch to other majors because they could not keep up.

During the 6 years of studying general medicine, students have to study both morning and afternoon. In the final years, they even have to spend the evenings going to the hospital. According to female student Vi Le Han (20 years old, from Que Phong district), the most "terrible" period is still the first year (year 1). "Because the way of studying is different from high school, the amount of knowledge is a lot. Meanwhile, new students are feeling elated because they have just passed a popular major, so they are very shocked," Le Han explained. During this time, students will study basic subjects such as chemistry, physics, biology, and anatomy. However, according to Le Han, the knowledge here is about 5 times more than in high school.

Among the first-year subjects, the most difficult is still human anatomy. In this subject, students will have to directly contact with human corpses. "Normally, when studying, the lecturer will cover the face of the corpse with a cloth. But once, a student accidentally dropped the cloth, causing many other students to see the face of the dead person and be haunted for a long time," Han said. He added that after each session with a corpse, many students went home and did not dare to eat meat for many weeks. There were also some cases where people even fainted immediately after seeing the corpse.

Female student Vi Le Han is currently the volunteer captain of the Nghe An Student Association at Hanoi Medical University. Currently, there are about 600 students from Nghe An studying here. Most of them are studying general medicine.

To help each other study, at the beginning of each school year, this association will organize a meeting program, guiding new students to get acquainted with the learning environment. In addition, the association also takes advantage of the students' limited time to organize volunteer work and cultural and sports activities. "Without these social activities, students will be stressed and unable to study. We have to participate to be more active, have better ability to withstand pressure to avoid depression from studying too much," said Le Han.

According to Le Han, to stay strong in this field of study, you must first reduce your self-confidence. “Because new students who have just passed the entrance exam are also very proud. You have to put that aside, because this school is full of valedictorians. The meeting program we organize at the beginning of the year is to talk to the new students about this issue. In addition, you also have to determine what your goals will be each year. For example, my goal for the first two years is to only study the main basic subjects and participate in social activities to improve myself. If I have a yearly goal, I will set a goal every day. Because the learning process here is very fast, if I wait until the day I think about what to do, the day will be gone and I can't keep up,” female student Vi Le Han added.

General medicine is considered the most difficult major in Vietnam. Photo: Tien Hung

Similar to Hanoi Medical University, general medicine students at Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy also have to struggle for 6 years to fulfill their dream of becoming doctors. These are the two leading general medicine training schools in Vietnam today. “Our biggest difficulty is pressure. Pressure from knowledge comes first, then from teachers, from family expectations and public opinion,” said Nguyen Tuan Anh (24 years old), a final year student at Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy.

Tuan Anh said the most difficult time was during his final years of study, when he went to the hospital to get medical checkups, many patients refused to let students examine them: “They didn’t trust us, while in order to study well, we needed to be examined in person. It was very difficult.”

Prof. Dr. Vo Tam - Vice Principal of Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy said that there are 4 majors for training doctors: general practitioner, dentist, traditional medicine doctor and preventive medicine doctor. However, general practitioner is still the most popular and difficult major. "This major not only requires intelligence because to get in, first of all, the entrance score is very high, but also you have to study hard. General knowledge here is just the foundation.

General practitioners can work in many departments after graduation, so they need to learn a lot of knowledge, from theory to practice and professional ethics. Not only in Vietnam, but also in the world, it is considered the most difficult field of study. If you want to pursue this field, if you do not have passion, you will not be able to keep up," said Mr. Tam, adding that for the general practitioner field, each graduating class often "drops" about 10% of the input because they cannot withstand the pressure and cannot keep up with the knowledge./.

Tien Hung