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the journey to a career in healthcare looks different for everyone
7 minute read
dr. aryan safakish, a medical physicist, was partly thrust into his chosen field of medicine because his parents were in healthcare. for registered nurse afsana lallani, her personal health struggles through her childhood and adolescence sealed her career fate.
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when you need any kind of care, whether it be for a simple cold or something as complicated as a chronic disease, you deal with someone who’s chosen to forge their career in the field of medicine. they’ve undergone schooling, training, and on-the-job learning to develop the skills necessary to care for the most important thing a person can have: their health.
but why do people choose to get into healthcare and medicine? after all, in many cases, the job can bring on significant stress, both physical and mental, and be accompanied by demanding work hours, while also incurring substantial costs in education and training to perform the duties of their chosen career position adequately.
according to people in the field of healthcare and medicine, the benefits far outweigh the downsides.
dr. aryan safakish, a medical physicist, was partly thrust into his chosen field of medicine because his parents were in healthcare. for registered nurse afsana lallani, her personal health struggles through her childhood and adolescence sealed her career fate. but for both, there’s so much more to it than that.
finding a calling in medicine through setbacks and perseverance
today, dr. safakish is currently living in the united states and in his first year of residency. but his road toward success in the medical field wasn’t a straightforward one.
when he was young, he watched his parents and some members of his extended family work hard in their respective medical careers. when he was 18, he “didn’t have any big career ambitions,” so he ended up studying biology as a default choice, having not known what else to take.
“i didn’t have my big picture focus of what am i here at university to do,” he said. “i just went more for the experience and tried to wing it.”
eventually, dr. safakish ended up being asked to leave the school because he wasn’t performing very well in his classes, and his life trajectory shifted.
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“i always say i had a midlife crisis at 20 years old,” he said.
he notes that being kicked out of university led him to take a good, hard look at his priorities to figure out which way his new path would take him, and he ended up at toronto metropolitan university (tmu).
“when you overcome something like that, it kind of gives you confidence that other challenges are achievable, too,” he said
he was given the option to apply for a highly competitive biology program or a similar program in medical physics. his time at his previous university helped him decide that a career in medical physics was the right path to take.
“i had to take a physics course and the physics professor that i had … doctor martin williams at the university of guelph, he’s like one of the most passionate and amazing lecturers that i’ve ever seen,” said dr. safakish. “even though i was struggling at the university, i used to go to his lectures, and i really liked that, and i kind of did okay in his class compared to all the other classes.”
his passion for physics was awakened during his first higher education experience, but once he arrived at tmu, he was able to dive deeply into the world of medical physics. there, he thrived in his studies, even though he didn’t go into it thinking he’d be a medical physicist.
while dr. sakafish notes that the financial stability involved in healthcare is definitely an upside to the job, it’s not the driving force behind his desire to get into medicine. aside from his family ties with the medical world, he sees money as a secondary to other positives because “there’s different professionals that i’m sure you can think of that make good money, but are leaving people wanting more.”
what dr. sakafish is talking about is personal fulfilment in doing a job that truly makes a difference in the world.
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he also notes that the work-life balance he achieves in his position is a significant upside, allowing him to enjoy life outside of work with his family. and no two days are ever the same, giving him variety in his professional life.
“some days i’m on my feet in the clinic wearing scrubs, literally in the operating room. other days, i’m at my computer trying to do some simulations or models or coding,” he said. “it’s very different from day-to-day, and i think that makes it a really cool career.”
for dr. safakish, the experience and the position he chose as his life’s work are “worth all the grind that you have to put into it,” because it pays well, offers him flexibility and variety, and fulfills him in a way that other high-paying jobs just couldn’t do.
choosing a career that felt like home
lallani spent the majority of her life in a hospital. she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at only 15 months old, and as she grew up, the hospital became her home. the nurses, doctors, and other care staff became her friends, and she’d even make time to show them her halloween costumes when that time of the year rolled around.
she never saw being in the hospital as a negative aspect of her life because that’s what she knew, and those people became the community she cultivated for herself in her young life.
as she got older, she was forced to contend with more health issues, specifically a type of rare liver disease that required a liver transplant. during that time, she was so ill that studying for her nursing degree became an activity she often did from a hospital bed.
at one point during her journey, her condition deteriorated to the point where she and her care team weren’t sure whether she would qualify for a transplant, and the idea of palliative care was floated around. she considered medical-assisted death (maid), but ultimately decided that she wanted to live and she’d do whatever it took to keep herself alive.
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“i’m so glad i did because i really wanted to be a nurse. that was my goal in life, and i thought, if i could just be a nurse for one day, that would be good enough for me,” she said. “i would be happy with that.”
lallani ultimately secured her donor and nursing degree, and today, she works in palliative care, an area of medicine close to her heart.
“i was almost palliative. i considered maid. these are all things that we talk about in palliative care, how to relieve suffering, not cause suffering, and all of my values seemed to align with the palliative care values overall, so i found it to be the perfect fit,” she said.
since nursing and the hospital setting felt like home to lallani, choosing her career was a no-brainer. she believes that it’s also given her somewhat of a leg up compared to those who haven’t had to deal with similar health struggles in their early life.
“it gives me a whole different lens on healthcare overall and how to care for another person, knowing what it’s like being in the bed as the patient and the little things that can irritate someone or provide relief,” she said.
she notes that something as simple as making a sandwich for someone instead of offering them “hospital food” could have a significantly positive impact because when she was on the other side of things, “that would be profound.”
“i am able to really understand where they’re coming from and help address things they need and what is important to them,” she said. “some people don’t have that perspective and … i know what it feels like on a deeper level to have or not have those things.”
lallani does still face challenges in her chosen career, largely due to her being immunocompromised due to the medication she takes for her liver transplant. but she deals with those obstacles the best way she can, and wouldn’t have it any other way.
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lallani hopes that more people will find their passion for healthcare in the same way she and her colleagues do because “we need so much more healthcare workers in the world right now, that all-hands-on-deck approach is the best approach.”
“it’s worth giving it a shot because it’s such an amazing profession to be a part of, and it is a gratifying profession to be a part of, making a real difference in other people’s lives,” she said.
lallani’s sense of home in healthcare settings and her personal journey on the patient side of things give her unique insight into the industry. her choice to become a nurse stems from her desire to improve the situation for others in her shoes, as she knows exactly what it feels like to receive both good and poor care.
“with my experience being in the hospital so much, i did get unfortunate bad experiences too, and through those bad experiences, i never really look at it like (that),” she said. “i looked at it as more of a motivator in life, where i saw it as an opportunity to improve, and i wanted to be the nurse that i didn’t have in those moments, so that other people wouldn’t go through the same suffering that i did. so, that’s why it was such a strong goal of mine to be a nurse.”
both lallani and dr. safakish are in the medical field, but their paths to get there are vastly different. however, both view the job as a rewarding career because they have the opportunity to impact others, experience personal fulfillment, and live life on the frontlines of what matters most: health.
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