Reflections

*this was what i wrote on our third weekly reflections in the community.

The medical field may be broad but the vastness brings one to narrow down into an array of choices. After passing the boards, a new physician may choose to a.) further master a specific specialty by going into residency, b.) earn financially by “moonlighting” or c.) become a public servant by going into isolated communities where there is scarcity of medical doctors. I see myself going into the third option before proceeding into the first one. This is not merely dictated by a particular scholarship that demands a 2-year compensated community service, but because of some personal wishes I want to fulfill before going hard core in the hospital for residency. Being a community doctor is advantageous in such a way that I get to have a break from the toxic hospital environment, I will have to spend more time with my family (or probably have my own family then), I get to give back to my community and to the government which provided me my education, plus the monetary compensation is not bad.

However, it is not all perks. Being a community doctor breaks all the clinical idealism in a new physician. Although we encounter benign cases, inaccessibility to simple laboratories such as x-rays, urinalysis and blood exams interfere with the accuracy of our diagnosis. We are taught not to rely on laboratory exams for diagnosis but it is undeniable how helpful labs are in confirming diagnosis that leads to proper management. Now it gradually dawns on me why patients from far-flung areas arrive at a tertiary hospital already on the terminal stage of the illness.

Few nights ago while we were watching the news reviewing what the current administration had accomplished on their first year on the seat, there was an emphasis on their negligence about health. Sadly, our country is filled with too much politicking that our beloved government officials deals only on projects that can be seen by naked eye such as infrastructure and agriculture and least on the core that allows a human being to act and think efficiently---health and education. I believe that our progress as a nation is impeded due to our failure to deal with the basics; we jump into the tip of the problems without knowing the roots. Unfortunately, our public officials address problems which answer only to their personal interest. They are unaware of what is happening into the less civilized part of country, how those people behind the mountains suffer physically and economically.

As a would-be community doctor, I will be dealing with a whole lot of the abovementioned social problems. I don’t know yet what I can do about it, solutions are definitely not seeping into my mind yet. But what is two years of dealing with social disease? It won’t be long, I would face physical diseases again which is way easier to cure. 

*we're about to begin our 5th week, and yes, about to end. which reminds me, i haven't written my fourth weekly reflection yet!!!