a slice of life.....

it was 7.40 in the morning when i reached the ward. damn...i was late. i quickly glanced around to mentally calculate how much work i had to do and how long it wud take for me to finish examining all the patients and write notes in their case-sheets. there were around 30 patients in the unit i worked for. i took a deep breathe and started my work.

I went to the 1st bed and asked the pateint the routine questions and carried out my examination. then sumthing the patient said made me panic. he said...." periya doctor vandhu paatharu. " ( meaning "the 'big' doctor came and examined me" in tamil ) I started to panic thinking i was late and the morning rounds were already over. i began to imagine the worst...my unit chief had come early today instead of the usual 8.30 am and had seen the case-sheets not updated. i was wondering why the post-graduate of our unit had not called me and informed me that sir would be coming early today and that i had to be ready...etc..etc...

Before going down to the chiefs room to apologize for being late and be shouted at, i just happend to ask the nurse in the ward as to when the rounds had begun. she said no, the rounds were not over yet. i became confused and told her that the patient had told me so. she still said that no one from our unit had turned up there since morning.

on interrogating the patient further, we realized that a final year student had come by to examnine the patient and went through his case-sheet because he had to present the case in class.and because of his height and built....he was called 'periya doctor'!!!

and another interestng thing we observed was that most patients called only the males medicos as 'doctors' , while the female medicos were always called 'sisters'....much to our irritation , but a constant source of amusement to our male collegues....!

i always say this to people who ask me advice on taking up medicine...which is... " medical college is like a public toilet , all the people outside are dying to get in...while the people inside are dying to get out!"

all this said...still...it was a great experience being a medico.

 

@ iswaryadevi

thank u.

yes its very much still like dat.

the respect of the patients is directly proportional to how huge you appear.... the huger u r, the more respect u command...lol...

i remember wen a friend of mine was posted in neurology during his internship. and the neurologist and he wud go for consultation rounds to other wards in the afternoons. and invariably every patient wud just ignore sir ( the neurologist ) and concentrate on telling evry minute detail of his problem to my friend....
the reason??? our neurologist was a short and slim man...who looked rather young for 45 yrs...while, my friend was 6 feet tall and well-built! but it was vry embarassing for my friend as well cos he was scared about wat wud sir think....

@ raba

yes,relieved....i was!

thanks for ur warm welcome.