Making my own contribution to helping people suffering from digestive diseases

Tetiana Polezaeva works as an assistant doctor at Erzgebirgsklinikum Haus Olbernhau, in Germany, and was educated at Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine. 

What prompted you to change your life radically by moving your country of residence?
While still studying at Karazin Kharkiv National University (Ukraine), at the Faculty of Medicine, I thought about moving to another country. Having visited my friends in Germany, I fell in love with the German language and learned it fairly quickly. After graduating, I went to a German epileptic center for a year as a volunteer in order to finally make sure that the decision I had made was correct. Having felt how the medical industry works from the inside, I finally decided where I wanted to live and work.

Why did you choose internal medicine, or gastroenterology to be more precise?
In Germany, I began to specialize in internal medicine, because since my university days, I was interested in this topic. Over time, I mastered the technique of ultrasound examination, as I believe that every doctor of any specialty should be obliged to master it. Subsequently, I was fascinated by endoscopy. Minimally invasive diagnostic search methods, as well as their solutions, most likely, cannot leave anyone indifferent. At the moment, in addition to the daily clinical work in the hospital, I direct all my efforts to improving my skills in the field of endoscopic examinations, since the number of patients with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, despite the improvement of treatment options, is growing rapidly. Naturally, my main aim is to make my own contribution, albeit a small one, to  helping people suffering from digestive diseases.

Besides being a doctor, you are also a mother. How do you manage to maintain a healthy work-life-balance? 
No matter how trite it may sound, but really my job is my hobby, so you can say that I do not work. Of course, I carefully allocate my work and free time. In the afternoon, leaving one hobby within the walls of the clinic, of course, worrying about my patients at home. I think every doctor understands what I mean, I begin to do something else with my family, husband, child, at home. All this brings me pleasure. My advice is to focus on the things that bring you pleasure and find pleasure in the things you do every day.