mctvm96 : Creativity : Blessings - Page 2 : '96 Batch, Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram.

BUT IS IT SO? Certainly NOT. It is a highly privileged ‘Divine Calling’. A ‘Special Vocation’
& ‘Mission’. & Further ‘METAMORPHOSIS’

LET US PRACTICE THE NOBLEST PROFESSION IN THE WORLD:
THE ONLY PROFESSION, which gives a ‘four in one’ reward:

Wishing each and every one of you
All the BEST & all SUCCESS
Both in your PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL facets of life.
Yours affectionately,

Dr. Joy Philip.
Professor& Head of the Department of Medicine
Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram.
& Dean of the Faculty of Medicine,
University of Kerala.

I am very happy to note that most of you have coursed out with flying colours in your MBBS examination. Your batch is very dear to me, because I have tried to teach your batch Medicine in the most practical way through the admission day ward rounds and the general clinics. Many students of previous batches have conveyed to me that these methods were very helpful in their later life. I have also tried to help you in understanding the patients in all their aspects. Including their emotional and social aspects. You must have observed that timely and proper communication with the patient and their relatives about their illness will solve many of the current problems. All the scolding, strictness and hard work, which were imposed on you, will definitely reap rich harvest in your later life.

And now for your future!!! You are about to complete the most enjoyable years of your life – the student years. You have to think more deep about your future and take important decisions. You have to take up more responsibilities. You have to even think about rearing a family. If you are interested in teaching, try your best to join our faculty. But I find that interest in this field is slowly dwindling. You have many other choices including joining a good private hospital; joining the health services; starting a clinic of your own etc.

Working outside India is a good proposition, but love your mother country even though she may not rise up to your expectations. You may go abroad for a short period or for further studies, but your base of work should be your country. For reaching many of these goals you need a basic PG degree. You may not get admission for a subject that you like but adjust and be content with what you get. For this you need very hard work. I would feel happy and proud if some of my students go in for basic research or even clinical research wherever you are.

Once you have chosen your special interest in a subject, be in the streamline of continuing medical education to keep pace with the progress in that field. In the modern era it is not a luxury but a necessity to know and process a computer. I strongly advocate this to all my students.

Wherever you are, be honest and sincere, taking ‘total care’ of your patients, working hard to achieve the highest goal, believing in yourself and in God. Don’t forget to communicate or to come and see your teachers whenever possible.
May the almighty God help and bless each one of you.

Dr. Mathew Thomas
Superintendent & Professor of Medicine
Medical College, Trivandrum.

Thank you for your invitation to give my felicitations to you on your leaving the alma mater to plunge into the vast horizon; to face the realism of professional and personal life.

During the 37 years I have lived in this profession, there has been more progress in the field of Medicine than has occurred in the previous 200 years. I am sure you are going to experience far more significant strides in professional accomplishments than what professionals of yester years have seen. For facing these, you have to be primed in the profession. Are you ready?

The practice of modern medicine have become complex, often confusing and an unwieldy enterprise. But it should never be forgotten that the very heart of this enterprise is the diligence, the trust and the concern, which is brought into the relationship with our patient. Once we surrender this relationship, we are at peril. Hippocrates knew it and he practiced it. What is most admired and respected in a clinician is not the medical skill itself, with its techniques and dogmas, but the whole, high ethical concept of medical science. The human endurance and the fundamental aspects of medicine are of no less importance than the latest journals, and are probably a better safeguard against obsolescence.

The public excitement over the profession has waned. This is due to the general decline in the practice of ethical principles propounded for the medical profession by our ancestors. This situation is unfortunate and alarming. The most important problem is lack of empathy-the clinician refusing to recognize that the patient is a human being with emotions. Human illness does have an appeal that no other adversity has, and it would be foolish for us to think that failures in our profession will not be on sensational display.

This scenario marks an end to myths long held by society that the clinician is a hero, with unfettered freedom and no accountability to the population they serve. If society has discovered that we are fallible, that hardly makes it our enemy. In the ultimate analysis, this change in attitude may be the best thing to happen to us, as we march into the 21st century, seeking its pleasures and its horrors.

What is the root cause for all this trouble? I feel that it is because the development of the clinician’s personality during the training period has unfortunately been relegated to the background. This is responsible for the many ills of the profession at present.

My detailing the deteriorating relationship between the clinician and the patient and the clinician falling from grace should not be viewed as an anti junior doctor attitude, but should be considered as an earnest plea, a fervent appeal to you individually and collectively to turn a more human face towards humanity. Let us always remember that there is a better thing on earth than wealth, a better thing than life itself, and that is to have done some thing before we die, for which good men may honour us, and God Almighty will smile upon us.

In my early days in the profession, The teachers were respected much more. Establishing a proper student-teacher relationship is very essential for the proper development of the training clinician.

To err is human and to forgive divine .Let us therefore look forward to the dawn of the new era, with hopes, dreams, and aspirations, for a new world, where the concepts of the profession, the respect for the teacher and the need for imbibing the professional ethics and the etiquette are identified and given value for. This will help you to organize yourself to give tender loving care, for a New World dedicated to the welfare of mankind.

Thank you once again. I hope my message will be taken in the right spirit. I look forward to being of any further help to you in future.

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