By Xueying Snow Zhang, MED 2015 Participant
“To Cure Sometimes, To Relieve Often, To Comfort Always”, the epitaph of Dr. Trudeau, explains perfectly what a doctor should do for patients. It is a philosophy that I want to stand by when I am a doctor in the future. So I chose the MED program and experienced shadowing a team of doctors in UCSF. It turned out to be a precious experience, and I want to share my feelings with you.
Hospital
The University of California, San Francisco Medical Center is a hospital in research and a teaching hospital in San Francisco, California. It is one of the leading hospitals in the United States and with the UCSF School of Medicine has been the site of various breakthroughs in all specialities of medicine. Patients with complex diseases from around the world seek treatment at UCSF Medical Center.
Doctors
I was so glad that I could be in Dr. Green’s medicine team. Dr. Green is an attending doctor as well as an associated chief hospital officer. Dr. Zhu, Dr. Scott and Dr. Elvin are residents on the team. After meeting to communicate situation of new patients, we began making the rounds of the wards. When asking medical history, the order of questions was just like what Dr. Oshimi told us in Clinic English, “OPQRST” and so on. They focused on every details. I also realized when the doctor used stethoscope or touch the patient, they would comfort patients. It was really a little thing, but sometimes it’s the little things that count. The human touch may prove to be more essential than medicine you give your patients as a doctor.
Patients
During the 4 hour experience, we met 10 patients. They were suffering different kinds of diseases, such as GI bleeding, falling down at home, etc. But the common thing was that they were really kind and patient to doctors’ questions. I was impressed by a particular patient. She fell down at home and was sent to the hospital by her children. She also had some features of Parkinson Disease. But she was very optimistic and shared a lot of happy memories with us. She also was willing to talk what medicine she will take. She hoped she could be fine as soon as possible and enjoy her life at home. I was very moved by her story. Although she suffered from a disease, she would keep her sweet memory and smile all the time.
My feeling
I don’t have any experience in hospitals in China as a medical student. But according to stories from my seniors, internal medicine here is different from ours. In internal medicine in China, they are divided into different departments, such as respiration medicine, gastroenterology and more. So doctors can focus one special area. But here, residencies need to take care of patients who may suffer GI bleeding, chest pain and others, which requires doctors to master almost knowledge of internal medicine, which means they need to pay more attention in clinic medicine. I really admire and respect them.
Actually, I dislike hospital especially ICU. Because it means sickness, sadness, pain, even death. However, in UCSF I saw kindness, warmth and love. Life is both fragile and strong. Nobody can predict whether tomorrow or disaster comes first. So take care of everyday life, treasure people around you and cherish your health, the best gift from the God. They are more important than any other things.
Although we only had 4 hours for this shadowing, I really experienced and learned a lot. I enjoyed the environment of the hospital, the discussion atmosphere from medicine team, the smile from patients. I will never forget my initial heart to choose medicine and with the company of this experience to be a doctor with kind and warm heart.
We have long way to go in medicine. But we are brave enough to choose this kind of hard but proud thing as our career even as our belief. And I am also glad to meet you. “To Cure Sometimes, To Relieve Often, To Comfort Always”, will accompany me forever.
