Learning to Doc the Talk – Maizatul Azamiah

Source: www.investment-education.info

I have worked for quite a few years as an assistant to a paediatrician. On every weekend, every school night, each summer holidays, I will always be at my father’s clinic, and yes, he is a paediatrician and he practices at his own clinic in Shah Alam; and I have been doing my “postings” there ever since it opened in late 2000. So  for the past 13 years of my life, you might say that I have I gained  some insight into the paediatric field.

Since recently finishing my pre-clinical years, my father has started to explain all the medical jargons to me. He would ask me how to diagnose a hand-foot-mouth disease, how to percuss an infant, and even some questions that were never written in textbooks; how to calm a patient down, how to inject a child without letting the needle fly away as the child wriggles and writhes during the procedure, or come to a diagnosis after just a few minutes with the patient. These things come with experience and I am forever thankful that my own dad could spare the time to teach me all these skills.

I have picked up quite a few tips and techniques along the years. All this helped tremendously during my oral & practical examinations, because, by helping out at the clinic, I have learned how to speak up proficiently, how to treat the extremes of age; infants and the elderly. For example, among the senile group of people, we need to speak out loud, and be clearer and louder than normal speech. This is due to the fact that hearing in the older community may be compromised with a condition called “presbyacusis” (age-related hearing loss), or other related conditions. Surprisingly, talking and engaging with children requires quite the same strategy. We have to be clear, talk with a hint of excitation and put up a cheerful demeanour to get them to engage with us and not put up a fight when we examine them later. All these behaviours have to be trained and will come naturally later in life; and believe me, these factors help tremendously in being a doctor.

Thankfully, the experience also enabled me to control my fear of speaking in public, and boost my confidence in facing people. As a child and teenager, I used to talk out of turn and often spoke of menial topics that do not sharpen one’s mind. By meeting and encountering adults (parents of the young patients at the clinic), I became aware of speech conduct I have countlessly seen in higher society. Etiquette is a form that is required by good breeding and to observe this with my own eyes, I was able to understand the conventional social decorum one has to learn and be part of. All this is so that when people are comfortable with you, they will open up to you and help to ease your process of examining and diagnosing them.

Why is all this important, you might ask. That is because as doctors, or a future doctor, in my case, we are the ones who have to reassure our patients. Without being a strong shoulder to lean on, how can we help our patients who are in need of support and faith from none other than their doctor?

The way we talk and how we speak is also a very crucial part in becoming a “healer”. What we say depicts who we are. If our language is foul or our demeanour is frosty, how can society look up to us? How can we convince someone to follow our medication regiments when we prescribe it to them, if the way we talk is not at all at par with the position we are in? Many a problem has occurred due to a breakdown in communication between the doctor and the patient. My experience at my father’s clinic is truly something I cherish because all that time after school with my father taught me, it is not just what you say, but how you say it that makes the difference.

This article is written by Maizatul Azamiah, a 4th year student studying in Mansoura University, Egypt. Learn more about her in the Young Columnists tab. 

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