Friday, March 28, 2008

Inspiration..

Someone brightened up my day...Again..without fail..
Being a doctor, our duty is to save life. No doubt about it. But what is the difference between a good doctor and a normal doctor? Today I learnt the different. Good doctor can inspire you the way that normal doctor do not.
Moving up the food chain in hospital from med student to intern, to resident, to registrar then lastly to consultant, one will learn more and more each steps. And with this one will earn more and more respect as well. But sometimes I wonder are we respecting them because they are good doctor or just because they are skilled doctor?
I categorised the doctors that I encountered in this Gen Med rotation into 3 group.
1) Doctors that are skilled themselves but in term of passing down their knowledge they are just not the best people to do it. So you will ended up feeling quite lost after their session. Luckily they aren't lot of them.
2) Doctors that can teach but make you feel damn stressed because after their teaching you will feel that you know nothing. This produce 2 outcome, either you buck up and study or you just give up.
3) Doctors that are good in teaching and good in prompting you to think. You will walk out their tutorial with great satisfaction. You will feel that you know your stuffs but there are plenty of room for improvement and so you are motivated to do more studies.
I am very lucky to have the 3rd category doctor as my clinical tutor. Being a gastroenterologist obviously he knows his stuffs just like any other consultants do. What made him so special to me is that he can pass on his knowledge to us without making us feel that we don't know our stuffs. He has his way to lead us to think and apply our knowledge. In such, we won't feel that we know nothing but we just don't know enough. Then he will teach and reinforce our knowledge.Because of this I always felt I learnt a lot after his tutorial.
With him around the whole learning experience become so rewarding. Learning in a stress-free environment indeed is better than learning in a daunting condition. He never put up the 'consultant' air and allowed the tutorial to go in a friendly way. I don't feel scare to speak up my mind, don't feel shy to say I don't know something, don't feel embarrass even if i did something wrong in front of the whole group. A really conducive condition to learn. I learnt to speak up more, speak up what's in my mind even though I may not be 100% sure. I found it useful to let him know what's in my mind because sometime what I think is correct actually is not. Sometime something that I had been doing and thinking all these while was wrong but I never know it until I spoke to him and he corrected me.
He has this charisma that can made people around him feel safe and secure and hence relaxed. I think the way he carry himself made him shines on others as well. And yeah, I think this is what a good doctor should be. Good doctor must be skilled, not only can cure people from sickness but can also made some differences in others' life. Treat the physical and emotional. Influence others, bring hope to others, and brightened up others life. Good doctors are being respect and looked upon not only because they are experienced or they are superior but because they can inspire others and made positive changes in others' life. That's what made a good doctor. I learnt that from him and I hope I can carry this with me throughout my career and life.

1 comment:

Ken Rhee said...

seriously.. this is like dejavu. i read a similar post 2 years ago. inspired.