03 December 2011
06 March 2011
Pics of Public Health Interest
Just as similar to an actual face as the beaky-nosed cartoons US kids are taught to draw, wouldn't you say? For an quasi-academic extrapolation (because I'm still a nerd even though I'm not in class and I still like making fun of myself for it) I'd call it a telling pictorial comment on the cultural contexts of anthropological representation in visual media. In other words, it's cool to see how different people draw people differently! :)
Sup, doc?
I've decided (or really, "re"decided) that I'm going to be a kick-a** doctor when I grow up. Just thought you guys would like to know. :)
At the beginning of my time here I'd have a different opinion on the relevance of an MD basically every day. Driving around on washed out roads and meeting people with hardly anything to eat convinced me that it is the construction workers, business owners, community leaders and farmers - not the doctors - that have the most power to improve lives around here. A lot of the kids we see at TTL don't need much more than good food to recover their chubby baby status. For the more complicated cases (TB, HIV, and accompanying illnesses) a doctor's skills would be handy, sure, but medicine is no silver bullet - especially when it is given out by pharmacies that run out of stock in unmarked bags to illiterate patients with whom most doctors only spend five minutes in a broken down hospital room. Add language barriers and cultural misunderstandings to all that, and then consider if doctors (especially foreign ones) are the saviors that many people seem to think they are. Maybe their time is better spent paving the roads... Seriously though, paved roads would increase people's access to resources, thus encouraging new businesses, thus creating more jobs, thus giving people more means to eat and get to clinics and take care of family etc etc etc.
But the fact is, their time is not better spent paving roads because of who they are. All those docs have valuable knowledge that does save and improve lives. Not everybody has that knowledge, and not everybody has the chance to learn it, even if they wanted to. This train of thought relates to my 'out of place' post - my place, as a student with a pretty good learning ability at one of the greatest universities around is to GET EDUCATED. And honestly, I don't know what else I'd rather do with my education than learn all about people and how I can help them on a very personal as well as very public level. That's the kind of doc I'd like to be.
There has been a volunteer medical team here for the past week, and it's been really helpful for me to see them in action. They're only here for another week, and none of them have a lot of experience with the most common serious illnesses here (have I mentioned them yet? HIV and TB?), both which raise questions of how effective they can really be. However, their medical knowledge has made a very real contribution in the short time they have been here. The doctor does family practice back in the US, so she has been able to give the bo'me staff members check-ups. The nurses have been really helpful with the babies that have been sick with vomit/diarrhea combo this week. I've watched the doctor especially playing the role of teacher by answering health/body-related questions that seem to come up when she's around. That ability to teach and connect with people in all sorts of contexts (Lesotho, US, lunch time conversation, hospital exam room, baby playroom...) is SO COOL. I want to be able to do that someday.
Plus, after watching certain medical professionals that I won't talk about here because I may or may not be more considerate than they are, I know that someday I will be able to provide better care than many patients here and in the US are currently receiving. Like I said, it's not all about the meds! It would be really great if the Mokhotlong hospital exam rooms had light fixtures that weren't dangling broken from the ceiling by their wires, xray light boxes that worked, faucets that didn't leak, curtain rods that actually held up the curtains, and soap (!!!), but it would be even better if all the medical professionals in that building were committed to serving their patients with the absolute best that they had. A lot has to be said for compassion, trust, meeting people where they're at, and seeing the bigger picture. Somehow I think that if these things were premed requirements, doctors and patients alike would be the better for it.
In the meantime, let's hope I keep the motivation to jump through those premedical hoops...or should I say, rings...of the aromatic benzene variety. Ah yes, I've got a long road ahead. But then again, don't we all?
At the beginning of my time here I'd have a different opinion on the relevance of an MD basically every day. Driving around on washed out roads and meeting people with hardly anything to eat convinced me that it is the construction workers, business owners, community leaders and farmers - not the doctors - that have the most power to improve lives around here. A lot of the kids we see at TTL don't need much more than good food to recover their chubby baby status. For the more complicated cases (TB, HIV, and accompanying illnesses) a doctor's skills would be handy, sure, but medicine is no silver bullet - especially when it is given out by pharmacies that run out of stock in unmarked bags to illiterate patients with whom most doctors only spend five minutes in a broken down hospital room. Add language barriers and cultural misunderstandings to all that, and then consider if doctors (especially foreign ones) are the saviors that many people seem to think they are. Maybe their time is better spent paving the roads... Seriously though, paved roads would increase people's access to resources, thus encouraging new businesses, thus creating more jobs, thus giving people more means to eat and get to clinics and take care of family etc etc etc.
But the fact is, their time is not better spent paving roads because of who they are. All those docs have valuable knowledge that does save and improve lives. Not everybody has that knowledge, and not everybody has the chance to learn it, even if they wanted to. This train of thought relates to my 'out of place' post - my place, as a student with a pretty good learning ability at one of the greatest universities around is to GET EDUCATED. And honestly, I don't know what else I'd rather do with my education than learn all about people and how I can help them on a very personal as well as very public level. That's the kind of doc I'd like to be.
There has been a volunteer medical team here for the past week, and it's been really helpful for me to see them in action. They're only here for another week, and none of them have a lot of experience with the most common serious illnesses here (have I mentioned them yet? HIV and TB?), both which raise questions of how effective they can really be. However, their medical knowledge has made a very real contribution in the short time they have been here. The doctor does family practice back in the US, so she has been able to give the bo'me staff members check-ups. The nurses have been really helpful with the babies that have been sick with vomit/diarrhea combo this week. I've watched the doctor especially playing the role of teacher by answering health/body-related questions that seem to come up when she's around. That ability to teach and connect with people in all sorts of contexts (Lesotho, US, lunch time conversation, hospital exam room, baby playroom...) is SO COOL. I want to be able to do that someday.
Plus, after watching certain medical professionals that I won't talk about here because I may or may not be more considerate than they are, I know that someday I will be able to provide better care than many patients here and in the US are currently receiving. Like I said, it's not all about the meds! It would be really great if the Mokhotlong hospital exam rooms had light fixtures that weren't dangling broken from the ceiling by their wires, xray light boxes that worked, faucets that didn't leak, curtain rods that actually held up the curtains, and soap (!!!), but it would be even better if all the medical professionals in that building were committed to serving their patients with the absolute best that they had. A lot has to be said for compassion, trust, meeting people where they're at, and seeing the bigger picture. Somehow I think that if these things were premed requirements, doctors and patients alike would be the better for it.
In the meantime, let's hope I keep the motivation to jump through those premedical hoops...or should I say, rings...of the aromatic benzene variety. Ah yes, I've got a long road ahead. But then again, don't we all?
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