Medicine

My hotel ran a clinic last weekend for one of the villages we work in. To say that the hotel ran it doesn't give proper due to the registered nurse, Cindy, we had with us who was really running the show.

My job was getting the supplies ready and preparing the van and the staff to come along. The rest of the staff acted as medical assistants.

On the first, none of us knew what we were doing, but Cindy guided us through. By the second day, everything seemed to run smoothly, although it still took about 10 minutes to see each patient. The department head for housekeeping was there asking questions about symptoms, occurences, and duration, and translating it all from Khmer to English. The department head for spa was taking blood pressures and pulse. Finally, the guest relations officer was filling out prescriptions and explaining dosage. I stood to the side and wrote down notes and vital signs.

It was all quite entertaining and interesting. We didn't see any major medical problems, like gigantic wounds or gashes. A lot of the problems among children seemed to be compounded by poor nutrition and general cleanliness. Many of the older people complained of chronic coughs and fevers that had lasted for many months or even years. These individuals probably had TB and there was really nothing Cindy could do for them on the spot, except to tell them that they need to go to a clinic for testing.

One thing I found particularly interesting was the desire for pills. Patient expected some pills, regardless of what they had. A prescription for more sleep, fluids, and better food just didn't cut it. Eventually, we started doling out multivitamins, because hey, they probably won't do any harm, they could do some good, and they might provide a placebo effect. Sometimes if people believe a treatment will work, that is enough for the treatment to work.

Even though the work we were doing was temporary, there was still great satisfaction. Yesterday, some of the teachers from the village came to the hotel to pick up their salary. They said that everyone was doing much better (with the exception of one lady). That too gave me strong sense of satisfaction.

This was the first time in my life that I have sat on the other side of the doctor's table, to give advice rather than take it. In that power I realized that doctors have an immense potential to give hope and change. In a way, that is the power I hope to wield in the work that I do: the power to provide opportunity and a better future.

The clinic encouraged me to seek out more information about health and well-being. However, I thought to myself that if I had met someone like Cindy earlier in my life, I probably would have been easily spurred to pursue a career in medicine. For now, my knowledge is in economics/development, so I will have use that to the best of my ability.