On last week's Medical English class, we watched the film Wit, starred by Emma Thompson. This film tells the story about an English Literature professor, Vivian Bearing, how her thoughts change after she was diagnosed with cancer and started her therapy.
One can have a lot to think about in this film. As medical students, we concern more about doctor-patient relationships than those abstract ideas about life and death. From Vivian's viewpoint, we see how she is treated by different characters: as a research object? a customer to be served? or a person to be helped? "Every 5 or 10 years, when you've become an intern, a resident, a VS and so on, you should watch this film again. Your reflection will change with time." Said our teacher of this week' class, Dr. Shen.
There are so many ideas popped up and disappeared in my mind while I watched this movie that when the credits appeared on the screen, I hardly knew what to say about this movie. Among all those vague ideas, I think I'll talk about my uncertainty about my future.
I'm quite afraid that I might become like the young and unconcerned doctor, Jason, in my near future. Jason does have enthusiasm in his job - in cancer research. It became very clear in the scene which Vivian ask him why he choose Oncology as his subprofessional. He brightens up when talking about the amazing tumor cell. But compare to that, to Jason, caring patient become a routine to fulfill. And most of the time he treat Vivian like a guinea pig in the lab. Caring people is not what he really wants to do. He's more of a scientist than a physician.
And what about me? The main reason that I compromised to choose medicine as my major is that I want to know more about human body and mind. I want to understand more about how our body functions to proceed some amazing tasks. But I have little interest in caring patients. I have the willing to cure them, to make them relief, but I am not the kind of person that shares others' pain and sorrow. This is what makes me not want to become a doctor in the first place. However, here I am, in the medical college where one should prepare himself to be a competent and successful physician. And again the film Wit reminds me of my fear of the future and uncertainty to go on.
Labels: Medical English
"The main propose of this course is to elevate your English ability, especially speaking. We are going to train you to think in English. Because in your future life as a doctor, the language that you use the most will be English." Said one of our Medical English professors.
Doctors in Taiwan need to speak at least 3 languages: Chinese(Mandarin), Taiwanese, and English. The former two languages are essential when communicating with patients, since that many people still understand only Taiwanese here. The latter one-English-is necessary because almost all the medical knowledge we have access to is in English. That's why we medical students in Taiwan have to take Medical English apart from English: we need to learn to discuss medical matters in English. To be frankly, it is quite a challenge for me, due to the fact that I get extremely nervous every time I have to say something important, whether in English or Chinese.
On the first 4 weeks of this course, we are going to talk about medical ethics. Tomorrow our group will give a presentation about patient preference-the autonomy of patient. We decide to perform several short dramas, ask our classmates some questions about the drama, then introduce some relevant context of The Declaration of Lisbon to them. (The declaration's full name is "The Declaration of Lisbon on The Right of The Patient")
Because we are afraid that it's hard for others to realize the meaning of the context if we simply read it, we decide that each one of us are to give a simple explanation of each paragraph of the context. My parts are as the followings, hope that I didn't get it wrong...
Exceptionally, information may be withheld from the patient when there is good reason to believe that this information would create a serious hazard to his/her life or death.
"For example, if we find out that a patient with depression has cancer, we should be very careful on telling him/her the truth, because of his/her unstable emotion."
If a patient is a minor or otherwise legally incompetent the consent of a legally entitled representative, where legally relevant, is required. Nevertheless the patient must be involved in the decision making to the fullest extent allowed by his/her capacity.
"In the situation we just showed you, although the patient is paralyzed, she still has the ability to express herself. So the doctor let her decide for herself and respect her wish to receive treatment."
The patient has the right to ask for the opinion of another physician at any stage.
"In the case we just performed, the patient's husband does have the right to seek for other doctor's advice. This kind of opinion is called "second opinion"."
The patient has the right to self-determination, to make free decisions regarding himself/herself. The physician will inform the patient of the consequences of his/her decisions.
"That is to say, the patient has the right to decide whether he wants to receive treatment, or which kind of treatment that he wants to receive. And the doctor should also tell him what the results of his choices will be."
Hope that I can do a good job on tomorrow-oh no it's already "today"!-today's class.
Labels: Medical English
