Thankful

How often do we complaint?

When someone is not doing their job right, or they are slacking, being irresponsible, and the long list goes on.

We always complaint.

Don't get me wrong, complaining is not a bad thing, we all tend to repair our wrongdoings and improve, and we hope people learn too.

But do we thank them when someone is doing a good job?

Think about it.

I think we should all be thankful. To the people around us. Towards what we have.

The above photo is an example of a typical Malaysian 'hospital meal'.

Most of my colleagues will complaint that the taste is awful, or its cold, or its meant only for patient.

THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!

There is no perfect meal in this world, even if there is, it's just for our temporary happiness.

I started to be thankful towards the meal that I have everyday. As I know happiness comes from within, not from external sources.

For it is not the happy people who are thankful.

But the thankful people who are happy.

FRCEM Primary!

It's set!

The pathway to becoming an emergency physician!

To cure, sometimes

To treat, often

To comfort, always

Ivan Tan

22/7/2020

Don't stop

Hey friend, I didn't know so many things happened to you until you told me just now.

It must have been a rough journey for you. If it was me, I don't know if I have the strength to endure it all by myself, alone. But I'm glad you still manage to storm thru all these.

I think the hardest part now is how to continue this windy road ahead.

Well, its really not easy in my opinion. I remembered when I was a first poster, inserted a branula was the most challenging thing for me, especially when the pregnant ladies' vein are large, and I still managed to bunk it.

But I feel the most difficult part is not bunking the vein, its the moment I decided to pick up the branula and poked it into the patient's skin.. that's step 1 for me, and I feel step 1 is always the hardest, no matter what procedures I'm doing.

Of course there are times where I will avoid doing it, as the fear of me bunking it again is so intense. But then I realized, the more I repeat step 1, the more I can progress, physically with skill, or mentally with courage.

Often I have to repeat step 1 for upto three/four times to be able to proceed to step 2, and I tell myself that's ok, because patients come and go, but my skill will build overtime.

Sometimes in ED, we have to use the ultrasound machine to guide us when we encounter difficult branula insertion, and we succeed. But come to think of it, we can succeed is not due to the ultrasound probe, but it's because we ourselves pick up the branula and insert it.

You may have stucked in step 1 now, and have tried few times, but still felt helpless. I'm sure deep inside you, you wanted to do step 1, and many of us are willing to help you to pick up the branula again, but you must insert the branula yourself.

Give yourself time, but not too long.

I'm always available.

A holistic approach

While dealing with specialist, one would usually learn more from the experienced ones.

While there are things that we often miss while dealing with patients, there are also things that is obvious but deliberately missed by us, the healthcare 'professionals'.

In the emergency department, we often tend to give treatment to patients, without explaining much to them, or to their next of kin.

The lesson I have learnt from Dr Chan Pei Fong was a valuable one.

Most of the patients need to pass urine, pass motion and some will feel hungry after more than 6 hours in the ED.

However, we often ignore them while dealing with more vital stuff, forgetting that those are the basic human needs as well.

'Patient will remember you if you take care of those 3 things, and not by how much medication you have administered to them', said Dr Chan.

This is undeniably crucial.

Those are basic human needs.

Also family members are worried too, it is our responsibility to explain to the family members and reassure them!

So yesterday I did the exact same thing, I guided a 80 years old patient to the loo, step by step, slowly.

I looked out for patients without blanket, and asked if they would like to have one, and nicely covered it on their shivering body.

I guess after 2 years of working, there is a need to revive the compassion in me.

There is no excuse to just focus on the 'important' stuff, while ignoring the 'basic' stuff.

It's time to improve!