I am glad you liked the book, too, Raquel. There is a particular chapter that I like, Chapter 5, "Signs of Dysfunction" because I personally can attest to his message, considering he talks about his 2nd year of Medicine, and that I am currently in full charge of 2nd year medicine and currently being transitioned into my Medical Intern program.
This is a verse from Tiongco's work:
"In the second semester of our second year in medical school, we were gradually exposed to selected charity patients in the PGH. These were patients who displayed the typical manifestations of diseases described in our textbooks. Some patients had been there for quite some time and were kept in the wards for a bit longer for "instructional purposes".....But by and large, the charity patients usually showed a lot of graciousness and understood that these "pesky" people were the next generation of doctors who could later help other people by learning from their present situation. I felt his message personally. Considering the fact that we deal with volunteer patients, as well as considering the fact that we medical students due tend to over simplify the fact that these patients are not just patients, or diagnostic tools or prognostic tools, but are also living, feeling, emotional human beings. They can cry, as we do, they feel as we do, they touch as we do, they live as we do as well as they have personal stories as we do.
In the march towards attaining the perfect grade, perfecting our auscultatory methods, our percussion methods, our palpation methods, our diagnostic methods, the use of medical terminology, and alienating the patient in order to protect our own mental abilities, we do tend to loose the human touch, if severed enough. It is important, definately to mantain a sense of respect and mutuality between the patient and the physician as the patient and the medical student.
When I am in the hospital floor and when I am talking to my patient, the patient sees immediately not my persona, but sees my white coat, my stethoscope, and my name tag. He sees the title, "Medical Student: 2nd Year" and immediately I can sense an aura of fear and defensive nature between him. It is the goal of the medical student to relax the patient, to allow him to be at ease, so as to make history taking, as well as prognosis to be effective.
Essential to the doctor-patient relationship is the issue of trust and reliability. We learn this early in our medical instructional years, I can personally attest to that.
Beyond scoring high marks on our exams, and competing with one another, as is will be the case between medical students, I am guilty of that, I must admit, we must also ascertain the ability to read the patient. It is essential and as what Tiongco later shares in his writings, is the basis of a 'Good Physician'.
Respect is earned. Respect is mandated, especially in the medical field. Not only respect for the physician, the attending, the resident or the medical intern, but most IMPORTANT is the respect for the patient.
Cheers,
Lorenzo
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