I am an 18-year-old about to start medical studies in two months time and as a result have been reading with great interest the on-going debate surrounding the working environment of housemen and junior doctors.

I have friends who are studying medicine at the moment, friends who have completed their studies and are beginning to work, and friends who are already successful doctors. I am at a loss to fully comprehend the divergent views I read in the media about the medical culture related to the working ambience of young doctors.

There are those who complain about the long working hours and the unreasonable on-call duties. And there are those who swear by this method like the current health minister and the Malaysian Medical Association president. They argue it is the ideal method for training a doctor for the real world.

In my humble opinion, doctors need to experience the stress and long hours that come in the early stages of their career in order to prepare themselves for the road ahead. Before starting university, most medical students know what they are getting themselves into and they just have to keep their heads down and take what comes.

But having said that, there is no point in working a doctor to his bone only for him to make an error due to fatigue or loss of sleep. That would create unnecessary risks to the patient and compromise the quality of medical care. Isn't that contradictory to being a doctor?

What is even more disturbing are the stories of bullying of housemen and junior doctors by their superiors. I think this goes against the ethics of being a doctor. As care-givers, doctors learn bedside manners and learn to deal with all sorts of people. Communication is vital. Those who abuse their power, humiliate and bully are in gross violation of the oaths they take. How can one be a likeable, friendly and successful doctor while being an arrogant, cruel and harsh superior?

What is needed in Malaysia to balance the clinical training that comes with the long hours is a generous dose of humanity from all quarters involved in the training and nurturing of these young doctors.

People trust doctors with their life, most of the time blindly because they have so little knowledge of medicine. Our responsibility is to honour that trust and heal them with our hard- earned medical knowledge and skills together with a mega-dose of empathy, love and compassion.

If we make a mistake due to negligence brought on by fatigue, we have failed ourselves, our profession and a life dear to family and friends may be lost.