A month at hospital..

This post was long overdue. I drafted this post days ago but haven't published it . Just now had the time to read, edit and publish it.

Well..I can hardly believe that a month has already elapsed since I started my basic clinical training at Teaching hospital, Batticaloa. Phew..it had been a really busy month. The best thing about last month is that we didn't have any lectures apart from the hospital appointments. The worst thing is that only our batch had any work to do , while others enjoyed their holidays.

Okay, let me first fill you up with what I had been up to over the last month...

I'm starting my 2nd year MBBS , next week. Before that I had to complete initial clinical training at our teaching hospital. Whole point of the hospital programme was to give us some exposure of the hospital environment, and make us realise the team work involved in managing a patient. We were supposed to learn basic clinical skills and patient -physician communication skills as well.We had to work under 4 consultant physicians in 4 specialities - Medicine, Surgery, Gyn&Obs and Pediatrics.

The teaching hospital I had in my mind and the one I saw were quite different. It doesn't mean that I had never been there before. Of course I had been there. All those times I just kept to the lecture theatre and clinics and all. Never spent much time in the wards. Now that I had spent many weeks throughout the hospital, I realised how much it has changed. Something which caught my attention instantly was the cleanliness and odor-free environment of the hospital.. and trust me, it's something very uncommon for the Srilankan government hospitals to be clean! I soon found out the reason behind this unfamiliar cleanliness. There were numerous sanitary workers with red-black uniform , working all over the hospital. They belonged to some private company called "Will-shine"[ I liked that name ;)]. Thanks to them, my hospital days were odorless and headache free :)

More than anything else, it made me realise the importance of team work in patient management. Even though those 'will shine' people don't have any medical knowledge they are an ineluctable part of the health care system. Every where i went and everything I saw in the hospital emphasized teamwork. Doctors cant work alone. They need nurses, ward attendants, labourers, laboratory technicians and even sanitary workers.

"Less 'me' - More 'We' ; this is what team work is all about" One of the surgeons told me this. Now I know how very true it is.. Now I know what it takes to be a good physician..