A Dose of PFC

Six full months glided by unnoticed. Having finished two clinical rotations (surgery and OB-GYN) and community medicine, we're halfway to finishing medical clerkship!! Whoah! Another blink of an eye and we're done, InshaAllah. Clerkship is not just about learning the disease processes in actual setting, for me, it is more about learning to mingle, adjust and deal with all different kinds of people. For the first three years of med school, we are mostly confined in the four corners of the room discussing what is it out there in the hospitals. Reading and re-reading our books alone and an occasional glimpse of patients. Until clerkship officially started, we wouldn't know what it is really like out there. It is a harsh environment, I tell you, and three full years in med school is not sufficient enough to get fully prepared of what's to come. As if everyone is awaiting, possessing that urgent desire to grill and roll you in the dust. However, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. We emerged  unscathed. Alhamdulillah. For the past six months, clerkship taught me to cultivate three important traits.

PATIENCE

All my life I believed that I was patient enough to handle all kinds of pressure blowing from all varieties of people I stumble upon. I believed I was well-adjusted and pliant enough. Until all the physical and intellectual fatigue accumulated, I felt like bursting, screaming, ranting and weeping like a baby. I was at the brink of deterioration. I blamed some undesirable people who unjustifiably wanting to make our lives miserable as a form of revenge of what might take place in the future. Knowing that outrageous actions won't help which might even contribute to some demerits, the best thing to do is holding back the tongue to avoid nasty, irrevocable words. Calm down and ask for guidance to the Almighty to help you think the next best thing to do. 

FAITH

Every single day in the hospital is an unexpected and unplanned scenario. Nobody knows what's gonna happen next, no options are presented but quick actions and equanimity are required. One has to trust his instinct and just have faith that everything's gonna be okay. With faith, that feeling at the end of the day as you go out of the hospital premises without toxic patient left in the ward, or without ER or ward death at your 24-hour watch is superb!!

COMPASSION

ALL patients--rich or poor--share something in common: pain. They're not whiny attention-seeker brats but are in great need to relieve discomfort they're feeling. And if there's another thing I understand, watchers are not getting any OA but they're somebody's loved ones who care utterly and would entirely give anything to free their dearest from the pain. To be able to manage a patient effectively, one has to put himself in the patient's shoes. The way you want to completely relieve your discomfort is exactly the way your patient does want it.

For the next six months, I pray that I may apply these things I learned about myself as well as apply and master the medical theories I have learned and will continue to be learning. I also pray that the relationship I have with the people around me will continue to be healthy and constructive rather than destructive. I am trying to make my everyday life in the hospital a fun and memorable learning experience so that one day, as I look back, residual happy memories that paints a beautiful smile will come flashing on my mind.