Doctor in village 3
It was in his forties that my father decided to pursue specialisation in Child Health. When he started practising Medicine there was no need for specialisation to make a decent living. The general practitioner was well respected and derived a lot of job satisfaction. But as years rolled on, the need to specialise increased and there were lots of peer and job pressure on GPs to go in for specialisation . Being in the Government Health services gave my father the opportunity to pursue specialisation under special rules for In-Service candidates. Admission to this "Service quota " was strictly according to seniority and therefore he was 45 by the time he completed Paediatrics PG course. When he started specialty practice he however continued to see older patients as well. This story is about a hilarious incident in Paediatric practice. It is very important to be able to examine a calm child to make a correct diagnosis . Most Paediatric texts advise that extremely young infants be examined in the lying position. However most toddlers become restless when forced to lie down,so this age group that is from about 8 or 9 months till about five years the children are best examined while they are seated in the mother's or father's lap. Many parents have the habit of placing their two or three year old in the examining chair in front of the Doctor and stand behind them. This is a sure recipe for the child to scream and make the whole interaction unpleasant. So when one afternoon a young mother made the same mistake ,my father gently chided her.
" Please ," he said " keep him on the lap".
" No doctor," the young mother hesitated " it will be inconvenient "
" What ? " he asked incredulously " to keep a child in lap is inconvenient ? "
With a lot of hesitation ,the young mother placed her one year old on the lap ...
...of the doctor!
My father did not know whether to laugh or cry ,but the infant knew. He cried and before his mother finally understood the mistake,had made the doctors lap his urinal.
My father used to say about the incident as an example of how communicating correctly to patients is important .
It was in his forties that my father decided to pursue specialisation in Child Health. When he started practising Medicine there was no need for specialisation to make a decent living. The general practitioner was well respected and derived a lot of job satisfaction. But as years rolled on, the need to specialise increased and there were lots of peer and job pressure on GPs to go in for specialisation . Being in the Government Health services gave my father the opportunity to pursue specialisation under special rules for In-Service candidates. Admission to this "Service quota " was strictly according to seniority and therefore he was 45 by the time he completed Paediatrics PG course. When he started specialty practice he however continued to see older patients as well. This story is about a hilarious incident in Paediatric practice. It is very important to be able to examine a calm child to make a correct diagnosis . Most Paediatric texts advise that extremely young infants be examined in the lying position. However most toddlers become restless when forced to lie down,so this age group that is from about 8 or 9 months till about five years the children are best examined while they are seated in the mother's or father's lap. Many parents have the habit of placing their two or three year old in the examining chair in front of the Doctor and stand behind them. This is a sure recipe for the child to scream and make the whole interaction unpleasant. So when one afternoon a young mother made the same mistake ,my father gently chided her.
" Please ," he said " keep him on the lap".
" No doctor," the young mother hesitated " it will be inconvenient "
" What ? " he asked incredulously " to keep a child in lap is inconvenient ? "
With a lot of hesitation ,the young mother placed her one year old on the lap ...
...of the doctor!
My father did not know whether to laugh or cry ,but the infant knew. He cried and before his mother finally understood the mistake,had made the doctors lap his urinal.
My father used to say about the incident as an example of how communicating correctly to patients is important .
No comments:
Post a Comment