Forget the romantic image of the doctor as healer and potent love figure. This was never part of the attraction for Michael Collins. "It's not like that in reality. It's not the most glamorous of lifestyles . . . it's a people-based job, you're dealing with everyday problems."
Doctors spend most of their days seeing patients over a desk or doing ward rounds, he says. "People sometimes have the perception that what we do is well paid and prestigious - in many situations it's quite different and these factors should not be the prime motivators for choosing a career in medicine."
Collins dismisses romantic notions that doctors, like those in Casualty, Peak Practice and ER, save the world and come to the aid of wan and beautiful patients. "I had a realistic impression of what it was about. The responsibility and the decision-making is a huge part of the job. At the end of the day, half your decisions can be pretty weighty and, if you miss something, the responsibility lies with you. Ultimately, that's really what leads to job satisfaction."
He started taking an interest in medicine when he was studying for his Inter Cert in the Cistercian College in Roscrea, Co Tipperary. "Coming from a GP background, I'd a good insight as to what it entailed," he says - his mother and his grandparents were doctors.
Being a GP is "very challenging and stimulating," he continues. "You can never get bored because you're in the front line. You need to be astute and vigilant even in dealing with what may appear to be pretty straightforward symptoms. Your mind has to be acute. It's like detective work.
"There's a lot of human interaction and you discover you're interested in the person and not just in the patient."
Today Collins is back home in his birth place in Co Kildare, working a in busy practice with two other doctors. "The variety involved is huge," he says. "You're dealing with people from the cradle to the grave. You can see a baby in the morning, the next minute you could be seeing a woman in a nursing home, or a pregnant woman or an elderly man who's had a stroke.
"You're not just dealing with their physical problems. You have to deal with physical, social and psychological problems. It's a holistic approach - there's no doubt about that.
"Being kind to people is a very important part of being a GP. You have to treat them with respect and give them time."
After the Leaving Cert in 1986, he went to UCD the following year to study medicine. There were 109 in first year. "Your pre-med year is on campus in UCD. Then first, second and third-year med are in Earlsfort Terrace. And then you go into fourth and fifth med - they're clinical years and part study and a lot of seeing patients."
Looking back, he says that "the academic side is tough enough but it's not tougher than any other course really. It's longer, it takes six years." But the length, he figures, "should not be a limiting factor to people who want to go to third level."
Collins believes that young people, who may be a bit squeamish, should not be put off medicine. "This is something that is dealt with gradually and in a subtle way," he says. "In pre-med in ordinary biology, your dissections are on dog fish, frogs, locusts, earthworms and sheepheads. It's a pretty gentle, subtle transfer."
He graduated in 1992. His first job as an intern was in Our Lady's General Hospital in Navan, Co Meath. "It's a huge learning curve," he says. "Once you start from being an undergraduate, once you come out from being on the ground as an intern, it's a pretty stressful time, probably the most stressful time in a doctor's career. It's the realisation that you now have a responsibility - and the hours are a big stress factor."
After three months in Navan, he went to the Mater Hospital in Dublin for nine months. After that he did six months in St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny. "It's a very demanding job and a very good learning job. There's good variety, you get very good exposure and it's very busy."
After gaining experience in a range of disciplines, Collins went to Galway to complete a three-year programme to become a GP. General practice is now recognised as a specialism, he explains. "You're working fully. During this period you do six months as a GP and then two years' hospital work and then six months as a GP again. You're called a GP trainee or a GP registrar . . . it's a good system."
Summing up, he says, "you need to be patient and even-tempered. You need to be a good listener and empathetic at the same time - and, one more thing, a GP has to be more business aware nowadays as well."
