A World Without Barriers...

I have come across this video few days ago. This video is a commercial ad filmed by Samsung and it is based on a true story. *Disclaimer: im not promoting on behalf of Samsung!* This video shows a deaf man from Turkey named Muharrem, who was moved to tears after learning that his neighbourhood had learned sign language just for him to promote the heartwarming message: 'A world without barriers is our dream.'

He was out with his sister and unaware that he was being filmed. He first encountered a stranger who signed 'good morning' to him, you could see the astonished look on his face. Later, he was offered 'hot bagels' through hand signals by a shopkeeper. His next encounter involves a stranger dropping a bag of fruits. When he went up to him and helped him to pick them up, again, the man used sign language to offer him an apple as gratitude. The shock is well written on his face when he said to his sister, "is he hearing impaired?". Later, he bumped in to a lady who apologized to him with sign language. He was also welcomed by a taxi driver into the car with sign language. The stunt, which took a month to prepare, was organized by Samsung to promote its call centre for the hearing impaired.

This is a heartwarming video and it caught me thinking, why would Muharrem think if someone was hearing impaired too when a man used sign language to offer him an apple. I guess, the reason being, deaf people have always been living in a world that is different from others, they have limited ability to express themselves and most people dont seem to comprehend what's on their minds and the only way they could communicate with others is through sign language. And often, when we see someone who communicates with sign language, the first thing that comes into our mind is that 'does he/she has hearing impairment?' A social stigma I would say. If the barrier they face is communication, the bridge to communication will be sign language. 

Using sign language as an alternative communication form is less about the production of sounds and words but more about the expression which involves creativity that enables them to express their inner ideas. 

If you were in their shoes, being less privileged than others, i guess you would wish to understand and to be understood. Not that i have many encounters with them but i think this is just something to ponder upon.

-Pei Li-

By hook or by crook.

I was taking care of a patient diagnosed with locally advanced breast cancer, and just had the mass removed. The other day I dropped by just to make sure she was doing fine, and while we were discussing about her future management plan, she broke into tears.

"I don't want to have that chemotherapy, it would make me suffers more!"
 "I'll consume more vegetables and fruits, stop taking any canned food or processed food, and eat some traditional medications', she was firm about it.
"Please don't make me go through that suffering with chemotherapy".

After spending half an hour explaining to her about chemotherapy, healthy lifestyle and traditional medications, she seemed to be shaken a little bit, but........
"I shall ask Tua Pek Gong for comments", I think my ST elevated acutely.

If a person is willing to listen and believe what a lay person told them about their disease, why can't those with professional knowledge do the same charm? They rather believe the facts (posted by dono-who) on the internet, but not to take in a single word from us, a group of professionals who spent five endless years in med school, and many many more years ahead in order to understand the disease deeper, a group of people known as DOCTORS.

Why are our patients rather turning away from us to alternative traditional medication?
Our drugs are nicely labeled with contents and side effects. (at least you could win a lawsuit shall anything went wrong)
Herbs tasted a hundred million times worse than any of the tablets we could offer, but why are they willing to spend time to boil it from five bowls of water into one saturated bowl of.......well, you know how it taste like.

The only acceptable explanation I could think of is, these every other options give them hope. 
(even if it is a false hope)

"If you take this herb, the cancer will melt away, you will be fine in 3 months time!"
"My friend's mother's daughter's friend once was diagnosed with cancer, doctor said she only left with 3 months time. That was 3 years ago. After drinking this (dono-what health products), she is still alive. I met her last weekend, she just had a baby girl"
 
As opposed to how we sell our treatment plan.

"You will need to go for radiotherapy, where your skin might get burn, but no worry, we will give you some cream to put on it"
"You will have chemotherapy, where we inject very toxic medications into your veins to kill the remaining of the toxic tumors. You might feel nauseous or even vomiting, losing piles of hairs, having skin and nail changes. Ouh yea, your immune system are basically knocked down by the drug too, but no worry, we will take care of it".
"And despite all these, you might still have a recurrence and die from it"

You see why we fail?
They lost hope in us.
Apparently a crook does a better job than us.

We have what known to be the best treatment in hands, but have no idea how to sell it. Other healthcare-related faculties seems to have marketing included in their curriculum, why not ours?

We failed badly in encouraging our customers to use our products, we failed horribly in engaging them in services we provide. Despite being able to label them with fancy diagnosis, we failed every other thing.

Now, try selling that iron tablets to a pregnant mother, push a little harder, and be gentle!
You better make sure she takes it, BY HOOK OR BY CROOK!
(that's a good idea for OSCE counseling station?)


-FiShe-

Optimizing patient care

Despite being held in a state so far from Batu Pahat, my friends and I decided to participate in the Annual General Meeting & Annual Scientific Meeting of College of Surgeons, Academy of Medicine of Malaysia held in G Hotel, Penang on 29^th -31^st May 2015. The theme of the conference is “Optimizing Patient Outcomes” which emphasizes a critical and fundamental goal of a surgeon.  

As this is an informal write-up, I will try not to sound academic but more to how I felt and what I gained from this conference.  But this may not be touching on the essence of this blog where we share our experiences during patient encounter in the ward. 

 

At the moment, I am interested in surgical-based specialties, thus hopefully I will gain some knowledge by attending this conference and have a bird’s eye view of a surgeon’s profession.  Maybe it’s still too soon to decide on should I become a physician or surgeon; taking MRCP or MRCS, but I personally think it will be beneficial to set a target in mind. 

The various topics scheduled in this conference were very compact and informative, so much so that some topics are too overwhelming and not for us to know yet such as the surgical procedures and techniques. Overall I think that when the speakers are explaining the basics of diseases, current updates of management and research findings, we could comprehend and acquire some simple take home messages. 

As two symposiums occurred concurrently, we could only choose one of them. The topics were: surgical trauma, breast and endocrine, urology, vascular, colorectal and upper GI. Another topic that I find it very useful is the talk on surgical education, which explained the entry to surgical training in Malaysia, formative and summative assessments of a Masters candidate. With this, I have a rough idea on what lies 10 years ahead of me if I decide to become a surgeon. It is certainly not easy and very much competitive. 

This is a long and tough journey requiring hard work, persistence, determination, great discipline and lifelong learning to eventually be near to the end point. From where I’m standing now, I am definitely lagging behind and there are so many potholes that I have to repair. Comparatively, I doubt my own capabilities and fear that I could not succeed. But I came across these inspiring words that strengthen me to believe in myself and stop comparing with others, I will keep on improving myself till the day I achieve my goal. 

"Life is full of disappointments, failures and setbacks. None of those things can permanently stop you. You have the power in you to overcome anything that life throws at you. There is nothing as powerful as a made up mind. Surround yourself with people who remind you that you matter, and support you in the ways that matter most to you. No person, situation, or circumstance can define who you are. Don't give up, cave in, or stop believing that it's possible. It's not over until you win." - Internet 

Before embarking on the journey to become a surgeon; I have to take the first step of becoming a safe and competent house-officer by providing optimal care to my patients and ensuring that they receive the best of care from me. And the next checkpoint soon we will pass, is our Part II Final Professional Examination. 

All the best to everyone! 

Another point that was conveyed in the conference is that medical care has been compartmentalize compared to the era before, and in modern medicine there are so many specialites, subspecialites and new technologies. However, specialists are restricted in their own specialites and tend to forget to treat the patient as a whole and addressing their basic needs. We tend to refer our patients across specialites and sometimes, patient care is compromised. 

There was once I encountered a patient in the surgical ward where he has uncontrolled diabetes, and the surgical MO referred him to medical for diabetes control. After a day, his glucose reading was still poorly controlled, the surgical MO then blamed the medical team for not doing a good job. From this, I reflect and think, aren't we supposed to treat a patient under our care, and do we lose our capabilites to treat medically when we are in surgical department? (I am not referring to complex medical diseases) Do we have to refer every other poorly controlled hypertension or diabetes and not managed ourselves? An elderly patient once asked me, "Why are there so many different doctors talking to me at a different time, who is the real doctor whom is in-charge of my well-being?" And at that point, I have to answer, they are all in-charge of you, but taking care of different diseases from different department. I understand that multi-disciplinary approach is very important but in that kind of situation I think we have the capability to manage the deranged glucose reading effectively and not put the blame or point our fingers at others.

That's all for now.

Lastly, photos from the conference with our IMU lecturers, Dato Kanda and Prof Lum :) 

-IngChing

"I understand..."

I have recently encountered a patient who was diagnosed with enterocutaneous fistula and has been put on long term nil by mouth and supplemented with total parenteral nutrition. Day in and day out I realised that she is getting more depressed, not only because she has to be hospitalised for a long period but on top of all, she is unable to eat. 

Often when we are in situation as such we tried to show our empathy and support. We care for the patient and we try to understand their sorrow.  

It's not wrong for us to try to cheer the patient up. It's okay for us to tell her the truth and her progress, to tell her that I am very sorry you are not allowed to eat and have to be on intravenous nutrition,  because what patient wants from us, is to be genuine and honest. 

But it's not okay to use use "I understand your situation," loosely, because to be frank, we can never really understand. I can never imagine if I have to be in the situation like this, where I cannot eat at all, for the next 2 to 3 months.

Sometimes as managing doctors, it's actually not so important for us to emphasise that "we also understand your pain", because that is only doing justice to our own conscientious and guilt,  but to be able to be by their side, and listen to them, addressing their concerns and checking their progress while only conservative management is being carried out, may mean so much more. 

KY 

The first time...

The first time of everything is always the most exciting one and you will always remember your 'first time' in doing something. 

I was watching an emergency LSCS yesterday and a senior MO was teaching a junior MO on how to perform the surgery. It was her first time in performing a surgery. To her, it may be an exciting experience that she cant wait to share with her loved ones but to the senior MO, it may be just like any other day that he scrubs in and performs a surgery. As I was standing aside and observing, suddenly the thought of doing something for the first time came flooding into my mind. I remember the first time when I learned to swim, the first time when I learned to speak in public, the first time I clerked a patient, the first time I did venepuncture on a patient, and the list goes on. There is a lot of excitement loaded in those events, but there is also fear in doing something for the first time. When trying something for the first time, you may be doubting yourself, whether or not you are able or capable to perform well enough, or what would other person think of you if you fail and the consequences when you fail. Often, these thoughts of negativism and fear would limit someone from doing what they think they cant do but in fact, they can. The feeling of insecurity often kicks in without you knowing and when that happens, you stop trying for the first time. Instead of having thoughts like that, what if you turned the first time into something exciting and positive?

Our days are built so routinely consisting of endless cycle of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, house chores, work and building relationships. It has been designed in such a way that there are days when you wake up, you just dont feel like doing anything at all. You will find yourself hard to get motivated. In order to make life a bit more exciting, a bit more meaningful, and to feel the thrills again, one need to come out of this routine and do something out of the box, for instance, go on a travel alone for the first time.

It doesnt matter how old you are, how mature you are and how experienced you can be, doing something for the first time in life could be sometimes exciting, unique and extraordinary. And to some, doing something for the second time may be boring or dull, however, if you could recall the mixed feelings you had when doing it for the first time, you may find the second time as exciting as the first time. And remember, you will never be fully prepared for the first time at everything and second experience may not be as smoother as you thought. 

So, when was the last time you did something for the first time?

-Pei Li-

The Etiqutte of A Doctor

If you ask anyone who is not in a medical profession on their perception of doctor, words that can be predicted such as, they are very noble, smart, patient, rich.. etc and the list goes on. However, things seem to change a little lately. And, I was wondering why such a change. 

Is there any problem with the competency of doctors? communication skills? or just attitude problem of medical professionals?

I believe most of the graduates have a certain level of competency and we have keep ourselves updated with the latest guideline provided to maintain optimal patient care. There are much emphasis on patient care, but has anyone thought that the relationship between medical professionals play an important role in a health constitution?

In my point of view, a doctor's behaviour is very important in many aspects and I believe not many doctors are aware of it. How does the doctor treat his patients, his communication with their subordinates or even someone who is very junior matters a lot. 

As a final year medical student who is going to graduate in few months time, I am learning how to be a good doctor. And being a good doctor encompasses many good criterias. One of it is being kind and humble. It may seem like a common sense, but many doctors have failed to do so. 

Doctors who are arrogant and inconsiderate to their juniors will cause unnecessary emotional disturbance and it will indirectly affect the performance of the junior. Of course this does not include reasonable criticism by a senior doctor. 

I always believe doctors should speak and act in a proper manner. If you think bullying/stepping on juniors makes you feel greater? THINK AGAIN! It just kills the interest of the junior in being part of the team. 

In other way, if a doctor who is very encouraging and kind, juniors will start to develop interest in learning and it will make a very friendly learning environment. 

Sandra Liew

Right or Wrong?

During our Sem 9 surgical posting in HTJ Seremban, there was a patient wrote to the star newspaper, filing his complain named "Why rob patients of their sleep and rest?"
http://www.thestar.com.my/Opinion/Letters/2015/01/19/Why-rob-patients-of-their-sleep-and-rest/
The patient complaint that the patients were waken up as early as 4.30 - 5am by the doctors for history taking and physical examination, robbing the time for their sleep and rest. However, I noticed some of the housemen nowadays are actually copying the files from the previous entry, some even just sit at the counter and copy the files without even talk to the patient or examine the patient. Hence, if the doctor is waking the patient up to talk to them and examine them, at least we know the houseman are really doing their job. However, from patient's point of view, it is true that they do need rest. As consultant round starts at 7.30am, so the MO round usually starts around 6am+, it is understandable the houseman have to start reviewing the patients as early as 5am since they have about 6 to 9 patients to cover.
Is the houseman wrong for waking the patient up early in the morning to take history & examine patients? I don't think there's right or wrong here. Perhaps it's just different point of view. 

- l.a.u -