After being sick over the last couple of weeks, I am glad to be online again. I thought I would share what I have learnt in the last week. After getting the flu for the first two weeks, I did what everybody is expected to do, drink fluids, rest etc and eventually I got better.

Great.

Much to my surprise, I began to feel unwell again in the next week. I went to my local Medical Centre and saw a new Doctor who was quite young as my regular doctor was not available. I was a little nervous as I wondered whether she had the experience to diagnose what was happening given I felt so sick. She told me I had probably picked up another virus and to go home and rest, which I did.

After a week, I was up and down and then reality hit when I got very unwell and headed to the medical centre again to find another doctor because again my regular doctor was still not available. This next doctor could not work out what was wrong but ordered tests which I had to wait two days for. Saw yet another doctor after two more days which by this time, I was so unwell I couldn’t stand up. After 3 weeks, this other doctor who took at least 15 minutes of examining me, finally prescribed me antibiotics and guess what, I started getting better. I had a sinus infection that was undiagnosed and had gone south pretty quickly! So as per usual, my Career analysis brain started to analyse what wisdom and career lessons can we learn in all of this experience, the rainbow in the clouds.

1. While I was keen not to judge the first young doctor and her level of competency, I gave her an opportunity to help me. While she obviously made a mistake and did not identify my medical issue, I did not go back to her for her to learn from that mistake, as there was no follow up. Will I go to her in the future, very unlikely. This makes me think, how are we training doctors? We have all experienced the 5 min -in and out swing of the door medical centre approach, fast and furious but what is the cost of this? More people in emergency waiting rooms at hospitals, numerous revisits and at the extreme unnecessary deaths. It makes you think. How will this young doctor get better at diagnosing or will she get discouraged that she leaves the profession altogether. This may explain why many young GP’s leave the profession early and suffer from depression. With no follow through, she will not grow and develop in her chosen career profession.

2. Have we become a society that is more concerned about making money that actually taking the time to make sure we are providing the best possible service for our clients, customers and in this case, patients? This is one of my pet hates, lack of comprehensive service. Seems like going for volume at a cheap price is the flavour of the century but I think we are getting into dangerous territory especially when it comes to playing that game with people’s health. What if we work with a purpose to serve others with money being a secondary consideration, I think we would redefine what a successful society looks like.

3. In an age where we have thousands of apps and technology that are starting to solve many problems and make life easy, why are we waiting two days for the results of blood tests? How can we improve or create careers that solve the speed at which we can diagnose quicker. Maybe AI will be the answer in this case.

4. The above story just didn’t just affect me but had a domino effect to the people I couldn’t help who sought my career advice and guidance during the time I have been ill. The wisdom here is that if we don’t get the right career training for individuals and business models that help societies where money is not the dominate purpose, we all lose out.

I have and will always advocate for training & supervision on the job. When I started out as a young accountant, many trained and supervised my career progression which I am very grateful for. I made mistakes, I learnt and I got stronger. What are we doing for those who are starting out today? How does your organisation train and supervise young adults as they start their careers. As a career professional, my role is not only to help support individuals that seek my professional career advice and guidance but also to raise awareness on a broader scale of how we can improve training and supervision for employees so that they grow and develop in their careers. If they get stronger, we can then all benefit from their contribution to our society.

Please share, if you want to make a difference in raising this awareness.

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