Without the White Coat
"Why are we Doctors?"...."What are we after?"
Is MEDICINE just all about diagnosis, treatment and making a living? As I came across on an article of one of the dailies (tabloids) in the region as "top physicians" address the concerns on our health care system and its effects, It had left me to ponder on my title for this article. As an eye opener, let us find the tipping point on why are we doctors in the first place.
Is it for a comfortable life that medical practice provides that gives us a "sense of security" or is it for the opportunity to serve and make a difference that gives us a "sense of contribution"? Is it for the love of MEDICINE as a science and a discipline that gives us a "sense of purpose"?
The next point to ponder on is the question "What are we after?" First, the opportunity to see the world and experience the best things life can give us answers "our search for meaning". Secondly, to be recognized for our accomplishments will further explain "our search for identity" and lastly, for a comfortable life that medical practice can provide. For the physicians nowadays, it is " a quest for survival".
These basic things could have answered the alarming questions that were raised on RP's health and the woes that goes with it. It is the age of specialization that have separated us from our patients. The practice of medicine has now become a business transaction between the physician and his patient and not a wholesome interaction wherein empathy, healing and caring takes place.
What is the doctor outside the realm of his expertise? Does the practice of medicine enhance him as a total person? Does the rest of him enhance his practice of MEDICINE? If a physician has to see a patient every 8 minutes, the doctor doesn't have time to know about and listen to his patient's problem whether in his house with his wife, with his son who have a drug problem or whatever that stressed him out in work. This only limits the physician to listen to his "heart and lungs", do maneuvers, look at his laboratories and prescribe a medication for his symptoms . Then, he'll move to the next patient...that's a "fast-food service type" practice of MEDICINE.
How can you address the problems and be close to your dear patients if there are at least a hundred of them lining outside your clinic office holding a number? How can we nurture balance in our medical practice if it is a 16-hour workday full of high stress? We should remember as physicians that "expertise magnifies our importance as doctors but it can render us less effective as healers". We should view disease and illness differently. A disease is a physical manifestation of a biological dysfunction while illness is one's experience of the process and his relationship to it.
An irony: " at a time where there is so much scientific evidence about the importance of spending time talking with people about their lifestyle and psychosocial factors, most doctors neither have the TIME nor the TRAINING to do it."
The doctor should be at its best... his skills, his ability to communicate and empathize with his patient, and lastly his ability to involve and mobilize the patient in the healing process. As physicians we should learn the fundamentals of effective treatment..... that certain personal qualities of the physician and of the environment in the hospital facilitate the patient's recovery. A positive patient's expectation assists healing and a sense of mastery empowers the patient.
Lastly, to answer the poor quality of medical education we must look back on what we taught these medical students - a "cook book approach" of treatment or diagnostic regimen. They end up as doctors that are trained to "be" the answer to all the patient's maladies and illnesses, physicians that are trained not to feel( empathy and sympathy) the affection of his patients, no transference of feelings, distanced that have to be viewed as a "demi-god" standing on a pedestal or someone dressed in a three-piece suit with a blunt affect and lastly, wearing the "whitecoat" to garner respect from his patient.(It is the stethoscope and the white laboratory gown that separates us from the rest of the world).
Just look around in this region. We have 4 medical schools, 3 are located in Metro Iloilo and the 1 in the Island of Negros. What does it tells us? Will we be producing a lot of physicians for this region or are we just too overpopulated with physicians on every corner of Metro Iloilo?
The products of medical school are seen in its graduates. The earliest we can train them as "Christian doctors", the better is the outcome. The true commitment to patient care is the vision shared to us by the College of Medicine of Central Philippine University. The advocacy of "JOY of CARING" taught among its medical students are a driving force that these students, as early as in there formative years, will learn the role of the physician to his patients, to his community and to the world. The medical school at Central Philippine University had taken a giant step towards patient care, making the patient as the center of care. The physicians viewed as a compassionate healer and as someone that can " bring back life to MEDICINE" are under the able leadership of its dean Dr. Glenn AM Catedral with "Tita Doc"... the very energetic and supportive associate dean of the College Dra. Alma Frondoza. They changed the image of the medical school in terms of how it is being run and how we educate our students - a strong commitment to the University's vision of " EXCEL for GOD's GREATEST GLORY".
CPU will produce its first " Christian Doctors" that will only give the field of medicine in this community a "handful" of "caring and compassionate" physicians. At least, an impact is done despite that only 1% of the budget is going to health. We all know this won't do no good for our "sick" country.