That night, Fang Ziye tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
He was both excited and anxious.
Coming from a small town, after twelve years of diligent study, Fang Ziye thought he had set out on the path to his future when he entered university. But upon arriving at an ordinary 211 university, Fang Ziye discovered he had merely donned Kong Yiji's long gown.
Clinical medicine was a good major with decent job prospects and stable income, but the competition was particularly fierce.
From his freshman year, Fang Ziye knew that to stay in a teaching hospital in the provincial capital, a doctoral degree was just the basic educational requirement. However, for an undergraduate like him from an ordinary 211 university, even getting into a master's program would involve a brutal struggle.
Fang Ziye had been studying since he was young and only knew how to solve exam problems.
After graduating, he realized his parents were too ordinary. They had used all their life's efforts to support him economically and send him out of that county town. From now on, if Fang Ziye wanted to make it outside the county town, he could only rely on himself.
This was Fang Ziye's first growth experience.
During his master's degree, Fang Ziye was fortunate enough to become a professional master's student in orthopedics at Zhongnan Hospital. It was then that Fang Ziye discovered that in the hospital, the high-degree holder admired by his relatives was nothing more than an errand boy.
In the operating room, even doctoral students had to toil and wait for the opportunity to suture, and they needed to have real skills.
In the hospital, even after completing a doctorate, one was still just an ordinary brick, to be moved wherever needed. After years of hard work, becoming an attending physician was just being a slightly higher-grade brick.
It could be said that it was because Yuan Weihong was at Zhongnan Hospital that he was seen as an "attending specialist" by outsiders, not that Zhongnan Hospital was the best teaching hospital for orthopedics because Yuan Weihong was there.
Even associate professors like Xie Jinyuan still had to curl up in the hospital, following Professor Deng Yong, earnestly learning techniques and diligently doing research.
And even Professor Deng Yong was still not among the top echelon in the provincial medical circle. Above him were senior professors and academic leaders.
Fang Ziye had been fortunate enough to attend national orthopedic conferences with his master. There, he occasionally saw the big shots who stirred up storms in Hubei's orthopedic medical field, yet at such academic conferences, they were still trembling with nerves.
If you were just an ordinary professor?
You were nothing more than a skilled worker, not much to talk about.
Fang Ziye had also been fortunate enough to be taken abroad once by his master. That time, he followed Professor Deng Yong to nearby Thailand to attend an international academic conference. It was then that Fang Ziye realized that even the top figures in China's medical field were so...
Not to say helpless, but it could be said that everyone there was wearing Kong Yiji's long gown.
You simply couldn't imagine how advanced foreign medical standards were. Even if it seemed they might be slacking off, you could never imagine how intense the competition was over there.
According to his master, when he studied abroad, he had to rent space in someone's living room because he had no money.
Even with full financial support, international students still didn't have that much money and needed to work part-time jobs.
Medical students abroad only entered the medical field at the master's level. Their professors would get up very early every day, perform surgeries, do rounds, then immerse themselves in the lab, and repeat the same routine the next day...
When others did academic work, they were truly doing surgeries in a down-to-earth manner.
But Fang Ziye had thought that all of this had little to do with him.
Never mind going abroad or attending major academic conferences, he couldn't even get past the doctoral studies hurdle. What awaited him was going to a prefecture-level city, then applauding and cheering for others at provincial academic conferences...
At best, he might get a publicly funded tour to attend a national conference, watching others perform from afar, and that would be it.
But now, it seemed that all of this had a bit of momentum and variability.
Pursuing a doctorate was no longer out of reach. As long as he could push forward a little more, Professor Deng Yong would recommend him to the Department of Surgery, giving him a chance at a doctoral position and an opportunity to continue his studies.
Writing papers, practicing surgery, then considering whether he could be outstanding enough to stay at the hospital.
However, Professor Deng Yong also said that if he could truly match the master's level requirements from the first training room, that is, in addition to debridement, suturing, hemostasis, and incision, if he could also achieve the exit requirements for other skills, then he would allow him to graduate early from the doctoral program.
There were many benefits to graduating early from a doctoral program. It would provide more time to comfortably enter a postdoctoral mobile station after graduation, focusing on scientific research and solidifying one's research abilities and project management skills, to later compete for those... like his master did.
Incision, suturing, hemostasis, and debridement were just basic operations in surgery, fundamental skills, the basics, the entry-level requirements. These were things that must be mastered.
Of course, there were other abilities that needed to be mastered well enough before one could claim to have a foothold in the hospital. Otherwise?
Using the word "despicable" to describe you would be a compliment!
As a doctor, technical skill was paramount.
But to be a doctor better than others, both technical skills and research had to progress hand in hand. Otherwise, in today's China, it was no longer an era where one could stir up storms solely based on godlike surgical skills.
"Let's not think about the distant future for now, it's too far off."
"First, achieve the standard in hemostasis, then consider early graduation, and then focus on staying at the hospital. That's the real task at hand."
"The Thousand Talents Plan, Outstanding Young Scientist, Distinguished Young Scholar... are these things I can consider now?"
"Master said that since I come from a professional master's background, I should first prove that I am indeed a technical talent, at least capable of being a senior technician at this hospital in the future."
"Orthopedic theory, bone defect treatment, large-area avulsion injury treatment, destructive injury..."
"Muscle suturing, bone setting, manual reduction of fractures, and so on, all need to be further studied and practiced. To match the big graduation from the first training room, it's best to improve both basic skills and specialized skills to a certain level before graduation next year."
"Bone defect splicing technology, bone molding surgery, bone flap design." Fang Ziye found all these skills one by one from the specialized basic skills, then determined the focus of his subsequent work.
Fang Ziye had a dream where he not only successfully completed his doctorate but also stayed at the hospital. After staying, he was promoted to attending physician, associate professor, and professor, becoming a veritable giant in the provincial medical field.
But when forcibly awakened by the alarm clock, Fang Ziye realized that he was still a junior resident doctor. Apart from a promising future, all that remained was a long road ahead.