A Simple Medical Workplace Story

In 2010, under the Trial Measures for the Standardized Training of Resident Physicians in Haidu City, issued by the Haidu Municipal Health Bureau, experts were commissioned to draft the Trial Measures for the Administration and Assessment of Standardized Training for Resident Physicians in Haidu City. The policy that had been debated for years was finally settled. Although Wen Pinglan had seen it coming, she still couldn't help cursing in the dormitory: "Me?" Roommate 1 played along, taking the good-cop role while Wen Pinglan took the bad: "Yeah." Wen Pinglan: "Me? After getting my PhD, I still have to work for free at a hospital and get a residency training certificate before I can become a doctor?" She'd never had lofty ambitions. She didn't want to go abroad; she just wanted a job in China that paid enough to live on. Roommate 1: "Didn't they say we'd get paid?" Roommate 2: "Look on the bright side. At least PhDs only have to do one year of residency training. You know Cao Ziming from the H Mountain program next door? He's finally about to graduate after his advisor held him back for three years, and now he's also stuck doing residency training in the first year. That's just brutal." Roommate 1 said, "These days, PhDs need one or two years. Maybe it'll become three years later. Give it a few years and everyone will get used to it." "A few more years after that, people might be fighting over spots at the residency training centers." Her roommate's prediction came true. By then, though, Roommate 1 had moved abroad, and Roommate 2 had switched to finance. Later, Wen Pinglan told her husband through gritted teeth, "If our daughter ever studies medicine, I'll break her legs!" Her husband wholeheartedly agreed. Reader's guide: 1. Realistic, ensemble cast, little romance. Theme: Heroes can come from anywhere.