A lot of people I know will be stun
if they knew I am a Family Medicine resident now. Some already are, upon
knowing about my decision but they eventually understand. Everyone just really
saw me being a Obstetrician and Gynecology specialist.
Never say never they say, so I won’t say that I'll never become anything other
than a Family Medicine Specialist. One thing I learned in life, is it always
take you by surprise. You may be dreaming of one thing then be led to
another. Before I say a lot more, I decided to write something about my
experience being a resident for two weeks now. You may be wondering,
"Where? In what institution?". Surprisingly, for you all out there,
I'm doing my residency in FamilyDOC. You may be wondering again,
"Why Family Medicine and why FamilyDOC?" So here it goes :)
I have various reasons why I decided to choose Family Medicine, first, because I want to be a specialist who is able to manage patients from all walks of life with illnesses that is commonly present is the community. I love talking to patients from all walks of life because I love continuously learning from them. I do not want my specialty to limit myself from it. Second, with the advent of the Universal Health Care Law in the Philippines it is really a great sign about our health care system and about Family Medicine practice in general.
Why FamilyDOC? Well, I've done a lot of research of course even when I was still in med school. I heard they offer a very competitive salary even before they have a residency program for their doctors employee. Then, eventually they created a Family and Community Medicine residency program which they applied for accreditation. I've talked to my seniors who are almost done in their 1st year residency about their experience and I've heard a lot of great things such as the very good working schedule where you can have 2 days off in a week, it may not be consecutive days but it's like heaven's gift, having a residency program where you can have 2 days off in a week right? And the fact you can go home each night after your clinic duty that is the best of all. Because no matter how tiring your duty went, if you can still spend the rest of your night resting and sleeping wonderfully in your own bed, again, it's heaven's gift right? Also, FamilyDOC's residents are being taught not just how to manage medical cases, but how to become an effective manager and leader in a work place and community. Most of all, it's actually FamilyDOC's vision itself that caught me, and that is providing greater affordability, accessibility and quality health care services to the community. I'm from the a province and from where I am from, we lack doctors. The doctors usually live in the capital of the province or ity. One doctor maybe for each municipality but it's not enough, way more than NOT enough. It's one of the reason I entered medical school and why I was able to get through it. I want to be of service to my community eventually. I dream to become a doctor who can manage all kinds of patients, from a pregnant mother, to her little children, to adults and the elderly people. All kinds of doctors are wonderful whatever specialty they may have. I just don't think it would serve with great purpose to many people in my community, even if I can do a complicated cesarean operation in a hospital but if I won't even know how to manage cases commonly present in my community. I leave the highly specialized skill to other doctors I can refer to :) I know. It sounds like a Miss Universe answer ^_^ But if you've been admitted for 5 days in a hospital in your province where you only saw your doctor once in the ER, it will definitely change how you see the practice of medicine. I believe all people from various places, from all walks of life, deserve equal access to quality health care. It might not sound believable yet, but there's a wonderful future for it here in our country.
And so far, in my few days of doing clinic duty in various branches of FamilyDOC, mingling with different staff, co-residents who are all kind, warm, approachable, supportive and all other great adjective you can possibly look for in a colleague, just simply make my experience even more great. It's kind of scary at first, especially for someone like me, fresh from passing the board exam who has very limited experience managing variety of cases. And boy, you'll definitely see a lot of interesting cases in the community, I'm telling you. The computer system makes it even harder to adjust too on your first few days. It might take you down for a while but eventually you'll get the hang of it, you'll become faster typing in the computer. You'll learn how to interview patient and encode the info at the same time but still being attentive to your patients. Basically you'll develop a lot more skills you didn't know you will in your life. Kind of exaggeration I guess but something of that sort. Definitely, what I can say is I'm definitely enjoying my stay there. I look forward to more learning I'll have from my seniors, colleague and patients in the future.
I pray for all you out there, seeking their passion and path in the field of medicine, that may you find the one that resonates with your life the most and something you see yourself enjoyably doing everyday, not dreading each day that will come to pass. Cheers to you in advance.
I have various reasons why I decided to choose Family Medicine, first, because I want to be a specialist who is able to manage patients from all walks of life with illnesses that is commonly present is the community. I love talking to patients from all walks of life because I love continuously learning from them. I do not want my specialty to limit myself from it. Second, with the advent of the Universal Health Care Law in the Philippines it is really a great sign about our health care system and about Family Medicine practice in general.
Why FamilyDOC? Well, I've done a lot of research of course even when I was still in med school. I heard they offer a very competitive salary even before they have a residency program for their doctors employee. Then, eventually they created a Family and Community Medicine residency program which they applied for accreditation. I've talked to my seniors who are almost done in their 1st year residency about their experience and I've heard a lot of great things such as the very good working schedule where you can have 2 days off in a week, it may not be consecutive days but it's like heaven's gift, having a residency program where you can have 2 days off in a week right? And the fact you can go home each night after your clinic duty that is the best of all. Because no matter how tiring your duty went, if you can still spend the rest of your night resting and sleeping wonderfully in your own bed, again, it's heaven's gift right? Also, FamilyDOC's residents are being taught not just how to manage medical cases, but how to become an effective manager and leader in a work place and community. Most of all, it's actually FamilyDOC's vision itself that caught me, and that is providing greater affordability, accessibility and quality health care services to the community. I'm from the a province and from where I am from, we lack doctors. The doctors usually live in the capital of the province or ity. One doctor maybe for each municipality but it's not enough, way more than NOT enough. It's one of the reason I entered medical school and why I was able to get through it. I want to be of service to my community eventually. I dream to become a doctor who can manage all kinds of patients, from a pregnant mother, to her little children, to adults and the elderly people. All kinds of doctors are wonderful whatever specialty they may have. I just don't think it would serve with great purpose to many people in my community, even if I can do a complicated cesarean operation in a hospital but if I won't even know how to manage cases commonly present in my community. I leave the highly specialized skill to other doctors I can refer to :) I know. It sounds like a Miss Universe answer ^_^ But if you've been admitted for 5 days in a hospital in your province where you only saw your doctor once in the ER, it will definitely change how you see the practice of medicine. I believe all people from various places, from all walks of life, deserve equal access to quality health care. It might not sound believable yet, but there's a wonderful future for it here in our country.
And so far, in my few days of doing clinic duty in various branches of FamilyDOC, mingling with different staff, co-residents who are all kind, warm, approachable, supportive and all other great adjective you can possibly look for in a colleague, just simply make my experience even more great. It's kind of scary at first, especially for someone like me, fresh from passing the board exam who has very limited experience managing variety of cases. And boy, you'll definitely see a lot of interesting cases in the community, I'm telling you. The computer system makes it even harder to adjust too on your first few days. It might take you down for a while but eventually you'll get the hang of it, you'll become faster typing in the computer. You'll learn how to interview patient and encode the info at the same time but still being attentive to your patients. Basically you'll develop a lot more skills you didn't know you will in your life. Kind of exaggeration I guess but something of that sort. Definitely, what I can say is I'm definitely enjoying my stay there. I look forward to more learning I'll have from my seniors, colleague and patients in the future.
I pray for all you out there, seeking their passion and path in the field of medicine, that may you find the one that resonates with your life the most and something you see yourself enjoyably doing everyday, not dreading each day that will come to pass. Cheers to you in advance.
