End to the MIR residency of a number 1: “I’m excited about what’s to come”

Although he already has some ‘scars’ from the experience of working in a hospital, Jorge Martinez Soto is still recognized in that young man who in 2017 achieved the feat of being number 1 in the MIR selection process. “I still haven’t finished believing it,” says this specialist in Cardiology who has just days left to complete his stage as a resident. At the gates of starting a new professional adventure, the man from Cartagena acknowledges that, although the future is “full of uncertainties”, he does have a clear intention of continuing to be linked to Gregory Maranon.

“I want to be here, to continue in the Cardiology unit of the Gregorio Marañón Hospital,” emphasizes the still resident doctor, who will close this learning stage next Tuesday. In statements to Medical WritingMartínez Soto affirms that he maintains the “Illusion of the first day” to continue working hand in hand with his current colleagues, “professionals with a lot of experience” from whom, he affirms, he still has “a lot to learn”.

The young MIR’s plan is to combine his work in Cardiology with his research work, which will continue once he completes his doctoral thesis. “And from there, whatever has to come will come, but I’m very happy and excited about what I have ahead”, he concludes.

Martínez Soto assures that his professional priorities have not wavered since five years ago he was recognized as the main MIR candidate. A news that he first celebrated “like a Nobel laureate and that today he appreciates as something “symbolic”. “When you arrive at the hospital, you become just another resident, and you start at the same point as the others,” he concedes.

Lessons from the stage as a resident in the hospital

This is, in fact, the message transmitted to the new MIR generations at the resident farewell ceremony held this week at the Madrid hospital. “What I recommend is make the most of each day, that they never forget that they have to come with the illusion of doing what they like”. And above all, adds the cardiologist, “remember that even if they have a bad day, the patients will be having it even worse, and your task is to help them”.

The latter is one of the main lessons he has learned during these years of residence. A stage in which she has known “the good side” of the health profession, which is “seeing how people who arrive very badly manage to improve and recover”, but also the bad. “In books and exams you don’t learn to assume misfortune to lose a patientespecially if you are young”, he highlights.

In this sense, he affirms that the fact of “facing a sick patient, a person who has a first and last name”, forces residents to approach the profession from a “much more human” point of view.

The Gregorio Marañón, a “second home”

Despite the hours he spends in the hospital, which he already considers “a second home”, the truth is that this doctor with Murcian roots affirms that he also finds time to dedicate himself. “It’s a matter of getting organized,” says Martínez, who during these years has not neglected his family and his friends, nor his hobbies. “I like movies and sports, of course, and also I love traveling. I have done a lot in these five years,” he says.

“What you have to try is give 120 percent in everything you do, whether in the hospital or playing paddle tennis with friends. If you do not have time, it will have to be another day, but whatever you are in you have to offer the most ”, she concludes.