Another advice I would like to offer to my young colleagues is not to give up empathy towards our patients. Time has changed with increasing number of litigation as well as violence to a doctors in our country. However our basic nature towards our patient must not change. We have every right to protect our self but maintaining empathy makes our journey is here in this career
Medical field has seen many practice changing studies being published in the last decade. New changes not only in treatment but also in investigations and patient evaluation.
Moreover our young doctors are more techno savvy and in this era of technological advancement and investigations, the art of clinical examination must not be neglected.
I have seen many of my young colleagues not even carrying stethoscope these days. In case of shortness of breath the first thing they order is a chest x ray and a 2D echo of heart. A simple clinical examination can differentiate between bronchial asthma, plural effusion and cardiac failure.
Our country is resource limited. If unnecessary investigations can be avoided by use of clinical examination then a lot of time, money and resources can be saved while we achieve a useful diagnosis.
Investigations should be used to confirm our clinical suspicion and not vice versa.
Another advice I would like to offer to my young colleagues is not to give up empathy towards our patients. Time has changed with increasing number of litigation as well as violence to doctors in our country. However our basic nature towards our patients must not change. We have every right to protect our self but maintaining empathy makes our journey worth it.
