Tibb Al-Usrah..Is that my future carrier?

"… I want to teach you how to be a good doctor" said Dr Hussam Al-Bakri, a specialist in General Practitioner of Medicine at Health Center, Irbid.

Tibb Al-usrah or Family Medicine was my first rotation for my 5th year clinical. Honestly, I didn’t have any clue about it before I went through it. Well, it was a long memorable holiday as I finished my 4th year break for 6 weeks being with family, doing all exciting stuff together at my homeland Malaysia.

On the first day, it was just an introduction sessions but who knows, doctor did take the attendance for every 3 lectures on that day. Feeling that I understood all that stuffs.. its like I put the crystal water into an empty jug without any split of it. Fresh brain uh.. Alhamdulilah.

In family medicine, we're clustered of 2 groups, then, separated to about 6 persons each subgroup to be in each clinic with a doctor. For the first day, I was the only girl in my group as my Turkish girlfriend still had her holiday.

"Duktura Nur, Syu grade or goal li sukkari? (Whats the grade for Diabetes Mellitus)" asked Dr Musa, a father-like Head of Dept of Family Medicine.

"Uh?? Mumkin a3d ya duktur.. (Can you repeat your question)"

Actually, I neither know nor remembered that grade. I just know about the Fasting Blood Sugar number etc. just.

"Yallah duktura, hay li taqyeem (for your evaluation)".

Nothing popped out from my mouth but still, the doctor kept asking about those I didn’t know. Just me. How about others' evaluation, I mumbled myself. Then, the doctor answered himself as no one knows about it. HTN with DM <130/80, style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);">Counseling and Breaking bad News. Is about approach. A good doctor is a good listener. That’s what Dr Hussam always said. Patient will tell you everything, sometimes, you know more about him than his partner itself. Yeah, I do agree. The more he teaches us, the more we discuss, the deeper I fall into Family Medicine.

1st-greet your patient, introduce yourself and address patient with his name.
2nd-ask about his health currently, his work and his life style. Is there any improvement or not.
3rd-Tell him that he has the disease. Ask him if he knows any point about the disease and also his expectation about the disease.
4th-Brief summary about the disease including its epidemiology.
5th-The pathophysiology about the disease and ask him if he has any question or not.
6th-Clinical features that he has
7th-Management, firstly is non pharmacological or managing life style.
8th-secondly is pharmacological, prescribe drugs to help him, tell him about how to take the drug, also the side effect and contraindication of it.
8th-Set his follow up schedule.
9th-Ask if he understood or not? Fi ayyi isyi thani? (is there anything?)

See, we have to know the patient's habit before approaching him. How?? Of course by daily skill, hehe. Know everything, be a good listener, good approach, talk to him nicely, appreciate him. What ever happen; we have to give him good words, a new hope, that’s what The Prophet PBUH teaches us.

Family Medicine, being in the clinic only during office hours is a gold chance. We still have a life, and as a girl or wife-to-be and mother-to be, we can manage our family and work time wisely, insya Allah. One more thing, Family Medicine is about patience as every second, patient come in and go out from our room but still, we have to perform our duty humanly even though we are so tired. Maintain the perfect smile even we're not in a good mood.

Ya Allah, please give me strength and patience to perform my duty in any way nicely.