Comfortable in Scrubs | Feature

image: anup prakash

Paleswan Joshi is in her element in a white coat, striding resolutely through the halls of Teaching Hospital as she examines x-rays, does operations and speaks to her patients. She looks like a woman with a purpose for whom every minute counts.

You know how passionate she is about her job when she talks about surgery: "It's an art," she explains with a spark in her eyes, "Almost like delicate handiwork. There's so much room for creativity." Besides the creativity that she loves about surgery, Paleswan chose to become a general surgeon because she wanted to do something different. When she started practising, she was one of the first female general surgeons in Nepal. Almost all the girls who passed out with her chose gynaecology.

But it's not all smooth–Paleswan has a fair share to balance out in her life. She has two little girls, seven and four, her husband is a physician and an associate professor, she gets calls for the clinic at odd hours of the day, she's a lecturer of surgery at Teachng Hospital, she's looking to specialise in Gastro-intestinal surgery and she has to do research and lots of papers to keep herself updated. "Of course it's difficult," she says. "But I've learned to manage. Right now, everything is set in place."

Asked why most women seem reluctant to choose surgery, Paleswan says that it's mainly to do with hype, "Gynaecology is difficult too," she says. "Nothing is impossible. It's just a field that a lot of women have not ventured into, yet."

Paleswan feels that she has a lot more to gain from being a female surgeon. At the OT, she works as hard as everybody else. But she feels that female and even male patients seem more comfortable to confide in her because she's a woman. Paleswan has been working at Teaching Hospital for the past seven years now. "Managing everything is challenging," she says, "But at the end of the day, I feel like a complete woman."

* Roma Aryal