Ideals

How many of you, medical students and physicians alike, have Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine?  Have you read the section "Ideals"? If you haven't because the moment you get your hand on the book, you directly flipped on the index to search for a particular disease, well, here goes:

Decision and intervention are the essence of action; reflection and conjecture are the essence of thought: the essence of medicine is combining these realms of action and thought in the service of others. We offer these ideals to stimulate both thought and action and action: like the stars, these ideals are hard to reach--but they serve for navigation during the night. 

• Do not blame the sick for being sick.
• If the patient's wishes are known, comply with them.
• Work for your patients, not your consultant.
• Use ward rounds to boost the patient's morale, not your own.
• Treat the whole patient, not the disease. 
• Admit people--not 'strokes', 'infarcts' or 'crumble'.
• Spend time with the bereaved, you can help them shed their tears.
• Question your conscience--however strongly it tells you to act. 
• Be kind to yourself--you are not an inexhaustible resource.
• Give the patient(and yourself) time: time to ask questions, time to reflect, time to allow healing to take place, and time to gain autonomy.
• Give the patient the benefit of the doubt. If you can, be optimistic: optimistic patients who feel in charge live longer and feel better.  

I have always categorized my books into two: school books and non-school books. School books are the text book ones, the boring ones, the one you read with the pressure of understanding it to get a fairly good grade during the exams. Non-school books are the fiction ones, literary ones, non-boring ones, the one I read with utmost desire while I let my imagination take me to some far away land and meet strangers and bizarre characters, books that teach me how to live life, books that present me with a new perspective. So it kinda surprised me to read something about how to practice the medical field in a humane kind of way. I should place this book under the uncategorized label because it is more than just a school book, it is a book on life--both literally and figuratively. :)

With all due respect, I've observed doctors who treat patients as patients and not as human being that they actually are. I, myself, is guilty of referring to patients according to their specific diseases and not by their names. (E.g., "Pauwi na si Lupus!" Instead of "Pauwi na si Ms. De Leon".)

I believe that medical practice shouldn't be based on how genius you are in treating your patient's disease but by treating the patient as a respected human being. :) 

Will post more about the few chapters in this book preceding the discussions on the diseases per se. :)