In the Month of the Fools - A Fool Writes

Now that even April is coming to an end, I am thinking times flies. But what vehicle it uses to pass at this tremendous speed is not known.

The 1st day of the month is celebrated as the Fools day. How this day came to be known as a fools day would take another post, some other time but this month too has conveniently passed & will end in the next few days. With the start of the month the whether started becoming hot. And in the past days it has just been boiling. This month also marked the arrival of my mother-in-law. Its been more than week since she arrived but there are till date no sparks of negativity or friction in between us. Summer vacations for the teaching staff members have started from 23rd of this month & I got a break from those long departmental meets. I am seriously still waiting for me to finish another book. I have no hurry this time. I will patiently wait to finish my work & then only forward my book to a publisher or even an agent. My maid is leaving & I am feeling bad as she was really nice. But nevertheless I will find a new one.

But this post is dedicated to the selection of students for symposium to be held for a certain scientific festival to be organized later this year. I & a certain professor form the Dept. of Physiology were called to select students who would eventually form a symposium team to participate in the scientific fest. 

The topics between which the students were supposed to choose any 1 topic to speak are follows - 1. Organ donation 2. Stem Cell Therapy 3. Doctor Patient Relationship. The students could speak on any one of the above 3 topics for a maximum of 4 minutes & on certain decided criterion's we 2 had to judge the participants & select the best 8 candidates. 

Out of the 3 topics mentioned above, the topic close to my heart is Doctor Patient Relationship. And when I heard the participants speak, for a moment I thought whether these budding doctors actually realize the actual meaning of the script they are reciting or its just for the sake of selection they are speaking. 

All of them who chose to speak on the topic spoke that we the doctors need to empathize with the patient. Doctors need to give time to the patient. Doctors should change their attitude. They should be more humanized. They are becoming more & more like machines. Instead of giving a particular serious look, they should smile at the patients so that the patients feel better. Few students also gave examples of 2 doctors in specific. Everybody (the staff, students, patients) were scared of a particular professor from a certain department because of his attitude. He shouts, ridicules & hence nobody liked him & are scared of him. But everybody liked a certain professor from some other department. The students claimed that his style of communication & empathetic attitude was what made that particular professor approachable. 

But the opinions these students reflected were biased. or probably a script prepared just to get selected in the symposium team. These students forget that in a few years time they would too enter the rat race. They too would be judged by the then undergraduate students. How many of the students who prepared the script to speak in front of us would actually follow it in the real life? 

What the students forget is that after all everybody is a human. Its almost impossible that any existing living human being would ever be a machine. Yes, experiences do change. No body can claim that what attitude they bore at a particular stage in life, the same attitude is carried forward throughout their life. When my son was born he needed diapers almost throughout the day. Today he turned 3 year old. He does not wear it. I too was a 3 year old once upon a time - innocent, sweet, lovable. But at 35 have I retained the same type of innocence & sweetness when I was 3? No. Change is constant & humans need change.

The participants were biased. As truly said by someone, they were clearly biased in their attitude. They were biased towards the patients & bore a strict attitude towards their fellows - Doctors. 

But has anybody of these undergraduate speakers realized that if they want to develop an effective doctor patient relationship it is they who have to make a certain action. I have not seen any students even trying. How many of these students really go to the hospital during their postings & just master the art of history taking? Why do these students not correlate theory with the practical aspects? Why do these students not make their diagnostic power strong right from their UG level so that when they would practice in the future they become efficient care givers? Why do they not make themselves the most superior human beings so that no amount of technology advances would be able to touch their humanity?

Just take a situation - There is a doctor who is disliked by many at his work place. If somebody on digging deeper find out that in his personal life too, that individual has a problem maintaining effective relationship with his parents, siblings, friends, neighbors, spouse, children. How would that individual as doctor be able to maintain an effective doctor patient relationship? There is an inherent problem with his nature. Even if that individual has seen positive examples of effective doctor patient relationship as an undergraduate, he probably would not be able to maintain one as his basic nature does not allow him to maintain one. A tremendously strong desire is needed by that individual to change his basic nature & maintain effective relationships. 

One more thing these UG's do not realize that barring a few of these students, most of them live a relatively carefree life. The doctors they see are those individuals who have a lot of other commitments to fulfill. These things an UG student does not realize. If my son is seriously ill & if I have to come to the hospital to treat patients how would I smile at the patients when I myself have a problem deep within my heart which prevents me from smiling?

They forget that both the doctors & the patients are humans & being biased towards just one side would be injustice.

Once upon a time the doctors were considered god by patients. But such a god like image exists no more. Doctors previously studied & practiced medicine in a more effective manner. The main art the doctors once upon a time possessed was the art of a proper diagnosis. They were curious. But such quality is rarely present in today's doctors. Previously the doctors used the diagnostic tools as an aid to the already made diagnosis & used them as a legal tool. But the diagnostic art is been weakened in the current doctors as the diagnosis is always preceded by some test. Hence the doctors once upon a time enjoyed the patients trust & could maintain an effective doctor patient relationship. The today's scenario has changed. The today's doctors have to make efforts to develop an effective doctor patient relationship which once upon a time was an effortless procedure. 

This is the end of my views on the topic. I would also like to wish my son A Very Happy Birthday.