An Uneaten Sandwich, Oddly Enough, Could Be Credited To

As I walked onto the medical floor in a white coat, I experienced a flood of emotions and suddenly found myself travelling very quickly down memory straits. The joy of providing care to patients and families always hung on and the desire to practice medicine was never lost. Having invested time and effort getting to know myself better, I have come to a place where I am more certain than I have ever been of my deepest inner conviction of giving to the human course, the sustenance of life.

For as long as I could remember, I have seen my father rushing to the hospital in a white coat, answering pagers in the middle of important family conversations and attending night calls even in the most terrible weather. I had always wondered; what could be so important that it belittles every other responsibility in his life. It was only after many years of anguish and protests that it finally made sense to me. This defining moment of realization occurred when I first met a patient in his office. I saw how the gratitude in the patient’s eyes can provide a sense of fulfillment that triumphs all other feelings in the universe. It was human life that was most important. Being a doctor does not make you a mere healer but also gives you the responsibility of a caregiver. I had never felt more proud of my father and that was the day I felt the urge to relive this feeling many times over. It was there in that moment that I decided to pursue a career in medicine.

Mr. Zhao taught about the human body with such zeal and overwhelming passion, it encompassed me from day one. Though I had already planned on a being a pediatrician because I loved to care for kids, Mr. Zhao made actual medicine in relation to the human body another aspect of a health career to explore and love. You’re probably thinking, “Well yeah, you can’t just like people in the healthcare industry”, yet patient care, compassion, and sympathy play a definitive role in such a field. I’ve witnessed these elements of healthcare first-hand volunteering at Texas Children’s Hospital. I volunteered during the summer and do so now during the school year.

Two hours until shift change and Sally Smith, RN was looking forward to going home and putting her aching legs up on the ottoman and drinking an ice cold Coke. She was thinking to herself that the patients were so needy all the time, she felt she gave them all she had and still all she had was not enough. All Sally heard was “get me this” and “get me that”…

Melvin Konner, in “Basic Clinical Skills”, uses a first person point of view along with some bits of humor in order to establish a more relatable narrator. He discusses several topics such as the relationship between doctors and their patients, the healthcare given in hospitals, and the role that the physician plays in different contexts of life.

In this paper I will describe the client scenario from my first six days of clinical practice at the medical ward of Eagle Ridge Hospital. I will reflect upon the salient learning experience received during the first 6 shifts at Eagle Ridge Hospital. I will explore the personal meaning of my clinical experience and will identify the plans for the next set of shifts.

During the year I have spent in the emergency department of Broward Health Medical Center, I have observed amazing cases and witnessed the dynamic qualities of a physician, such as being a critical thinker, showing compassion and expressing empathy. A competent physician must simultaneously function as a confident teacher and humble student to do well in the constantly evolving field of medicine. As I observed the bedside manner of the emergency department physicians, they were always concerned for the patient 's best interest and often went the “the extra mile” for their patients. I admired their dedication and will strive to treat my patients with a similar level of respect and compassion in my future practice.

Over time, I began connecting many of the patients, visitors and staff at the hospital. It became clear that caring does not always mean diagnosing, prescribing, and waiting. One night there was a woman in the emergency room with two policemen standing outside her door. Her

During the time I have spent on this new journey, I have met people from multiple schools and different cultures with different levels of training and career goals, but ultimately, all of which have a common desire to serve the patients – something I have found enriching in my

Everywhere you turn, there is a patient with a unique medical story, and they are all connected through a common purpose. Looking at the many rooms lining the hospital hallways strikes up my curiosity of every patient who ever laid in the

Hospital and doctors visits have become more, for lack of a better word, luxurious over time. Though our healthcare professionals are still concerned about the state of their patient, it

However, I know that I can assist other families regain their health. Even though I didn’t ask for anything in return, sciences and medicine had given me the satisfaction of seeing people alive and healthy. For this reason, I desire to educate myself in medicine because I want to prepare myself, thus I can be able to succor all those people who shared their stories, experiences, advices and in general, their life with me during high school and college. I intend to study medicine because I want to be able to improve the quality of people’s lives. My thirst of knowledge for sciences and medicine, the fervor to serve others and the impact of the doctors that helped my family had been the nutrients that help my seed for Medicine to keep growing and drive commitment to follow my vocation in medicine. Genuinely, I consider that deciding to study medicine is to choose a way of life, a way of being someone, not a way to do

Working in a hospital has given me a more intimate perception of how a hospital operates. Physicians are not the only professionals that contribute to a hospital; it takes a well-rounded team of dedicated professionals to sustain a health care facility. Working with biomedical technicians, I have gained useful knowledge regarding the safe use of medical equipment and have learned of the dangers of improper equipment usage. The vast amount of detail considered when renovating a room such as the cath lab has given me a far greater appreciation of the tools and resources supplied to physicians. Whether I was testing autonomous controls in the spinal cord injury building or searching for IV pumps needing maintenance, I was surrounded by hospitable,

This revealed the varied responsibilities that a doctor can face on a single working day. During a lecture on Medical Ethics, I learnt about the controversy of the biomedical model, given that psychosocial factors such as stress and depression can actually contribute to heart disease. Volunteering weekly at Aston House care home, I enjoy listening to and learning from the residents' individual life stories, while working in a team with other volunteers to develop ideas of arts and crafts activities to stimulate them. This role has helped me challenge myself and develop qualities such as teamwork, patience, empathy and effective communication. Operating the till at a Thames Hospice charity shop on busy days has enabled me to work accurately under pressure, while striving to treat each customer based on their individual needs and interests. Keen to gain an insight into patient care in a clinical setting, I recently attended a training day at Hillingdon Hospital, and will soon begin my role as a ward-based patient

I have always possessed a strong interest in understanding the intricacies of biology, which had influenced one of the most important decisions of my life; joining medical school. As much as it was an enjoyable day-to-day learning process, during the clinical years, I particularly relish my internal medicine rotation experience that involved intricate thought processes in understanding, diagnosing, and managing patients with complex diseases. I was inspired by the way the internists were treating patients, their bedside manner, as well as their holistic and dynamic approach to treat patients. That experience certainly kindled my interest in internal medicine; the more I learned, the more I wanted to join the department.