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Homoeopathy is a form of alternative medicine in which practitioners treat patients using highly diluted preparations. Homoeopathy maintains that the vital force can react and adapt to internal and external causes that homoeopaths refer to as the ‘law of susceptibility’

The lowdown
Homoeopathy is a form of alternative medicine in which practitioners treat patients using highly diluted preparations. Homoeopathy maintains that the vital force can react and adapt to internal and external causes that homoeopaths refer to as the ‘law of susceptibility’. This law implies that a negative state of mind attracts hypothetical disease entities called ‘miasms’ to invade the body and produce symptoms of diseases. However, the father of this system, Samuel Hahnemann, rejected the notion of a disease as a separate thing or invading entity and insisted that it was always part of the ‘living whole’. He integrated the principles found in the writings of ancient philosophers into a holistic system of therapeutics

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Clockwork
The work schedule of a homeopathic doctor in a hospital may be something like this. The time devoted to OPDs may vary according to shifts. However, a doctor in private practice will have a different schedule, depending on the timings of his clinic
9am: Reach hospital
9.15am: Take classes with UG and PG students
1.30pm: Quick lunch
2pm: Conduct clinical classes for students
3pm: Treat patients in OPDs
4 pm: Check patients in the ward
5.30pm onwards: Go to the library, read journals and prepare for next day’s lecture
6.30pm: Call it a day

The payoff
In the government sector:
Entry level: Rs45,000 per month
Middle level: Rs70,000 per month
Senior level: Rs90,000 per month
In the private sector, earnings may be a tad lower at the entry and middle levels. However, a senior doctor with a roaring practice/ multiple clinics earns good money

Skills/TRAITS
* You must be a good listener, able to gauge psychological as well as physical problems to make diagnosis easy and find a quick cure for the patient
* Good powers of observation
* Should be a very good counsellor
* Untiring zeal to restore the sick to health
* Patience is important because healing through homeopathy healing is a long-drawn process

Getting there
You must take up physics, chemistry and biology in Class 12 and then follow it up with a bachelor of homoeopathic medicine and surgery (BHMS) programme, the minimum essential qualification. It’s a five-and-a-half year course that includes one year’s compulsory internship.

Then you can go in for a postgraduation (MD), which is a three-year long course. You can choose among various specialisations at this level