All the negative energies piling up these past month (weeks) need an outlet somehow. and well, in spite of singing my heart out when I am alone and cleaning everything I get my hands on to, I think it's time to write and do my best form of catharsis.
This post has been at the back of my mind for about a month now - a month after our community rotation and only now that I am able to put it into writing/typing.
***
As soon as we finished the family medicine rotation, I started to think of what to write for my collection of internship entries and i remembered the line from lilo and stitch - Ohana means family.
Family medicine rotations has always been, for a lack of better word - chill for the past three years. It allows you to assess patients in a not so stressful environment, take time in talking to them and managing them. (Well technically, each patient should really be managed and assessed without being rushed, no matter what rotation. However facing reality, we actually do not have the luxury of time to address the volume of patients the way that it should be. That we compensate for respect, compassion and understanding and unfortunately by we, i don't necessarily mean every doctor or intern there is.)
Like the past years, this year, family and community medicine gave me the chance to again practice the kind of doctor that we all should be - taking into account where the patient comes from and dealing with the patient as a whole - something easily forgotten with the countless laboratory tests and medications available. But aside from the 2 week rotation of being able to see patients on the front line and getting undifferentiated cases, we were also given a 6 week rotation in the community which is something that I really enjoyed.
Community medicine has always been close to my heart. I actually started not knowing anything about it, nor understanding what I signed for the Regionalization Program but the countless workshops and immersions made me see community medicine as more than a yearly requirement.
And for our internship in community medicine, we were assigned to the municipality of Amadeo, Cavite. We were able to immerse with the people of the community and do things I have grown fond of doing in the community - eating, sleeping - eating again - sleeping again - doing clinics in between and doing something for the current community project. But what made those three weeks extra special is our foster family. Meet my 3week roommate erika and our family, ate jo, dixie, nanay oyet and tatay ambe (not in picture).
They are a simple family living a simple life who welcomed us wholeheartedly into their homes and treated us like their own sister/cousin/daughter. We have grown so fond of living with them that we (me and my groupmate) chose to stay for our last night at home rather than go to the 100 days interns' party (or baka tamad lang kami. haha.).
We hope to go back there and visit, hopefully if schedule permits. I would love to again sleep on our borrowed room, eat nanay's different types of pancit, ate jo's pasta and just talk and bond over Ikay on GMA TV.
Three weeks and you get to be part of a family. That is just one of the reasons why I find community medicine special.
'Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.'
and this is my way of again being grateful and of course remembering :)
***
I know that I am recently exuding the persistently stressed state aura and that it scares some of my friends and well it scares me as well. Perhaps it's just the type A personality-slash-control-and-OC freak being heightened with the responsibility at hand. And there are no excuses. I see this as one of those 'on going construction - women at work' situation in the process of my personality development to become a better person.:p
I guess I just need a little nudge, that today is just a small part of the bigger picture. And if Taylor Swift can't calm my senses, perhaps closing my eyes and remembering the feelings of peace, contentment and simple happiness that I was able to feel while writing this down would remind me of the more important things in life. :)
This post has been at the back of my mind for about a month now - a month after our community rotation and only now that I am able to put it into writing/typing.
***
As soon as we finished the family medicine rotation, I started to think of what to write for my collection of internship entries and i remembered the line from lilo and stitch - Ohana means family.
Family medicine rotations has always been, for a lack of better word - chill for the past three years. It allows you to assess patients in a not so stressful environment, take time in talking to them and managing them. (Well technically, each patient should really be managed and assessed without being rushed, no matter what rotation. However facing reality, we actually do not have the luxury of time to address the volume of patients the way that it should be. That we compensate for respect, compassion and understanding and unfortunately by we, i don't necessarily mean every doctor or intern there is.)
Like the past years, this year, family and community medicine gave me the chance to again practice the kind of doctor that we all should be - taking into account where the patient comes from and dealing with the patient as a whole - something easily forgotten with the countless laboratory tests and medications available. But aside from the 2 week rotation of being able to see patients on the front line and getting undifferentiated cases, we were also given a 6 week rotation in the community which is something that I really enjoyed.
Community medicine has always been close to my heart. I actually started not knowing anything about it, nor understanding what I signed for the Regionalization Program but the countless workshops and immersions made me see community medicine as more than a yearly requirement.
And for our internship in community medicine, we were assigned to the municipality of Amadeo, Cavite. We were able to immerse with the people of the community and do things I have grown fond of doing in the community - eating, sleeping - eating again - sleeping again - doing clinics in between and doing something for the current community project. But what made those three weeks extra special is our foster family. Meet my 3week roommate erika and our family, ate jo, dixie, nanay oyet and tatay ambe (not in picture).
They are a simple family living a simple life who welcomed us wholeheartedly into their homes and treated us like their own sister/cousin/daughter. We have grown so fond of living with them that we (me and my groupmate) chose to stay for our last night at home rather than go to the 100 days interns' party (or baka tamad lang kami. haha.).
We hope to go back there and visit, hopefully if schedule permits. I would love to again sleep on our borrowed room, eat nanay's different types of pancit, ate jo's pasta and just talk and bond over Ikay on GMA TV.
Three weeks and you get to be part of a family. That is just one of the reasons why I find community medicine special.
'Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.'
and this is my way of again being grateful and of course remembering :)
***
I know that I am recently exuding the persistently stressed state aura and that it scares some of my friends and well it scares me as well. Perhaps it's just the type A personality-slash-control-and-OC freak being heightened with the responsibility at hand. And there are no excuses. I see this as one of those 'on going construction - women at work' situation in the process of my personality development to become a better person.:p
I guess I just need a little nudge, that today is just a small part of the bigger picture. And if Taylor Swift can't calm my senses, perhaps closing my eyes and remembering the feelings of peace, contentment and simple happiness that I was able to feel while writing this down would remind me of the more important things in life. :)
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