Without the White Coat
JOC....different faces of JOY
It didn't stop with the book that told the stories that heal the heart of our patient, but it continued in the lenses of a digital camera capturing the different faces that joy can be express. You may call it a documentary, but in a portion of time that expression that came out from that human body is now captured in a strip of film or paper. May it serve as memories in the past, but it may have healed the sorrows deep inside us all.
They always say that pictures will always speak a thousand words, the faces, the situations, and the state of the patient's well-being is now transformed into a collage of memories in paper. How can a picture relieve a patient's pain? You may have asked yourself what have technology left this patient. From the newest and advanced form of diagnostic equipment and instruments that have cut our time for diagnosis in half, relying on the advanced medical technology that have distanced ourselves from patients, and indeed the specialized of the practice of medicine that have separated us much farther from our patients.
Simply said " that the state of the art of technology and breakthrough training may do wonders for the patient's health, disease or illness and does not only affect the patient's body parts, but it also erodes the emotional well-being of a patient leaving him, broken." The human touch of the doctor and physician is now gone , the warm touch of the doctor, an ear that listen to the patient's problem, a person that is seen by the community as a caring and compassionate physician and lastly the healer deep with in the physician is now lost. Loss is the luster among the doctors in Metro Iloilo, the doctor have viewed his relationship with the patient as a business transaction.
There is a steep competition among the practitioners in the field of medicine, especially in the field of surgery, doctors are just too eager to earn a fast buck to pay off there amortization for a new car and a "house".( just remember I did not said " home" ,but house, seeing a big difference, it is the competition and the "crab-mentality", thus the newer graduates of medicine will have a hard time finding a niche in their neighborhood for there filed of specialization. I may quote a friend it is a " bankawanay" form of practice)
Through pictures in the form of photography the JOC program will help transform the growth of a caring and healing physician, thru the eyes of the camera's lenses will tend to release the stress full environment of the hospital and will create an atmosphere of creativity among caring and healing physicians. It will teach us as physicians to strengthens our bonds with our patients, that need to address our patient's emotion, the need to embraced our patient further and leave the feelings of joy and will finally bring "LIFE" back to medicine.
Last August 18, 2006, JOC had brought to Iloilo Mission Hospital, a seminar-workshop on digital photography entitled "Capturing the Different Faces of Joy". The pictures will show us the human frailty and suffering in medical institutions documented in pictures( the realities), but as physicians letting us address situations and turning it around 360 degrees giving more emphasis on "caring", thus changing the relationship between the doctor and patient. A picture perfect relationship that shows laughter, showing us further the healing process, a physician that uses his ears to listen attentively, and a caring heart that empathized and that human touch that reach out to his patient, then the change in the image among doctors as seen by the media and our community bringing mutual trust, confidence and compassion back to the practice of medicine.
Let us look back on that initiative that had been started by our friends from the pharmaceutical company, BIOMEDIS that encourages physicians to have a deeper human interaction with their patients and participation of their families and community in bringing back forth the healing process.