Discourse on Healing
For four years in med school we have been trained to become professional doctors equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to function as a physician in our human society. For four years we were taught to master the human anatomy, right to its smallest details. We were taught to master the human physiology and understand how the human body functions down to its molecular level. We were taught to master the science of drugs and medications, its pharmacology and how its chemistry affect and alter our human bodies.
After having done so, we have been made to think that the things we learned in med school are enough to make us the best skilled and most proficient doctors our society can ever have. However, our exposure in the hospital, whether it would be government-owned or a private institution, has destoryed this primary belief.
While it cannot be denied that knowledge about anatomy and physiology and the basics of medical science is important and is the foundation of every doctor, it is not the actual true source of healing that comes from the physician. Through the years we have seen how the techniques in the science and art of healing changed from one generation to another, since the days of Hippocrates down to the era of human geneticists. We know that some of these methods have been declared obsolete and while others persisted even despite the lack of hard proofs for their effectivity. In other words, methods and sets of knowledge are never permanent and are always changing.
It has been a personal realization that a patient recovers not necessarily from the medications we give, or should I say, not just entirely from the way they were managed medically. True healing does not come in the form of a pill. If we as doctors truly believe that it does so, then we are only deluding ourselves. True healing comes from a gentle touch, a soft smile, a generous time spent for listening, a sincere visit, a genuine concern for the patient. These are the true sources of healing, the love that wells up from one soul and spills over another. All of these drugs and medications then only enhance the healing that has already begun.
But healing does not imply total recovery. Most of the times, it never manifests itself physically. Patients die and occasions like these make us think how we have failed to heal a patient. It can only be considered a failure once we consider our managing a patient as a fight against death. We struggle against death and we lose. We will always lose once we fight with death. Death is inevitable and nobody wins. But once we take it as a moment for love and care, and not a battle for supremacy against the talons of the inevitable, then we shall never see ourselves in a competition but rather in an opportunity to heal. And even when the patient dies, he has already been healed.
Let us therefore heal hearts rather than cure diseases alone. Let us therefore mend spirits rather than just reduce fractures alone. Let us leave an amiable impression rather than just prescribe medications alone. Let us be healing doctors.
After having done so, we have been made to think that the things we learned in med school are enough to make us the best skilled and most proficient doctors our society can ever have. However, our exposure in the hospital, whether it would be government-owned or a private institution, has destoryed this primary belief.
While it cannot be denied that knowledge about anatomy and physiology and the basics of medical science is important and is the foundation of every doctor, it is not the actual true source of healing that comes from the physician. Through the years we have seen how the techniques in the science and art of healing changed from one generation to another, since the days of Hippocrates down to the era of human geneticists. We know that some of these methods have been declared obsolete and while others persisted even despite the lack of hard proofs for their effectivity. In other words, methods and sets of knowledge are never permanent and are always changing.
It has been a personal realization that a patient recovers not necessarily from the medications we give, or should I say, not just entirely from the way they were managed medically. True healing does not come in the form of a pill. If we as doctors truly believe that it does so, then we are only deluding ourselves. True healing comes from a gentle touch, a soft smile, a generous time spent for listening, a sincere visit, a genuine concern for the patient. These are the true sources of healing, the love that wells up from one soul and spills over another. All of these drugs and medications then only enhance the healing that has already begun.
But healing does not imply total recovery. Most of the times, it never manifests itself physically. Patients die and occasions like these make us think how we have failed to heal a patient. It can only be considered a failure once we consider our managing a patient as a fight against death. We struggle against death and we lose. We will always lose once we fight with death. Death is inevitable and nobody wins. But once we take it as a moment for love and care, and not a battle for supremacy against the talons of the inevitable, then we shall never see ourselves in a competition but rather in an opportunity to heal. And even when the patient dies, he has already been healed.
Let us therefore heal hearts rather than cure diseases alone. Let us therefore mend spirits rather than just reduce fractures alone. Let us leave an amiable impression rather than just prescribe medications alone. Let us be healing doctors.
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