Paris Musings - Part 2

APHP is the Greater Paris hospital system comprising nearly 40 hospitals, which admits millions of patients each year. Besides providing medical examination and treatment, these hospitals are all affiliated with universities, known as university hospitals (CHU - centre hospitalier universitaire), providing undergraduate and postgraduate training, including residency training for foreign doctors (FFI - Faisant Fonction d'Interne), now DFMS and DFMSA.

On my first day back in Paris, I took the opportunity to visit my mentor at Beaujon Hospital, where I completed my DFMSA, and also invited him to attend the Vietnamese Orthopedics and Traumatology conference. He gladly accepted and asked if there were any young doctors who spoke French, as France is ready to welcome them, but I mentioned that the younger generation rarely uses French nowadays, so I haven't been able to find anyone yet.

Photo: Dr. Vu Anh taken with doctors at Beaujon Hospital

The generation after me has many excellent English speakers, but the opportunity to go to English-speaking countries where you are actually allowed to work, treat patients, and perform surgeries is quite difficult. Meanwhile, in France, you get to work for real, receive a monthly salary, and even get free housing... Francophone students (AUF) from Hanoi Medical University often give up after a few years of study and do not pursue the Francophone track, which is truly a waste. I think in the current context where there are so many residency graduates, finding a job after graduation is quite difficult, and competition depends on many factors. If you haven't secured a job right away, you can completely strive to pursue FFI training; not only do you have the opportunity to enhance your knowledge and develop yourself, but you also have a job and a salary. After that, there are two paths: 1 is to take the conversion exam to work in France, 2 is to return to Vietnam with a degree that makes your CV look better and gives you more career options. Not to mention, going to Europe also helps you broaden your horizons in terms of culture, self-confidence, travel, etc. Besides, who forbids you from learning both English and French, since they share the same Latin roots?

If students truly think about this path early on, I think it is also a way to reach the destination. Clearly, we are not afraid of traveling the journey; we are only afraid of traveling without a destination or failing to reach it.