in first or second year mbbs stepping into the hospital can feel like entering a different world you barely know your anatomy pharma is confusing and you mostly just stand quietly while seniors talk in medical riddles
so it’s easy to think what’s the point of coming to clinics so early
but the truth is clinics in your early years aren’t about knowing everything they’re about seeing how all the theory you’re learning actually applies to real people
you start seeing the patient behind the textbook
that man with copd isn’t just a diagnosis he’s someone who used to play football and now gets breathless while talking to you that image stays in your head way longer than any lecture
you learn how a hospital really works
from who to talk to and how to present a case to small things like writing notes and reading the room these skills can’t be taught on paper
you see that medicine is more about people than diseases
you learn how to comfort someone how to explain things simply how to just be present and listen things no textbook will ever really teach you
you grow without noticing
you won’t even realise when you start picking up signs or asking better questions suddenly one day you’ll be able to take a history on your own and it will just feel normal
and most importantly clinics remind you why you’re doing this
in the middle of all the diagrams and cycle pathways it’s easy to forget the purpose clinics bring it back
go even if you feel lost go when you’re tired go even when the whole batch is skipping because these are the quiet moments that build the kind of doctor you’ll become later
real medicine doesn’t begin in books it begins by showing up and observing someone who’s suffering and slowly learning how to help
