Treat patients 'as you would your relatives'

Stepping into the career world is a daunting prospect for most new graduates, but those from medical schools face an especially tough time. Once at hospitals, fresh graduates take charge of not just the health but also the lives of their patients.
Hanging over them is also the threat of lawsuits. About 200 patients or their family members complained of medical malpractice last year, says the Medical Council, adding that most were due to misunderstandings.
Over the past decade, the Public Health Ministry has faced about 100 medical malpractice lawsuits, with victims seeking a combined Bt456 million in compensation.
The council’s deputy secretary, Dr Ittiporn Kanacharoen, said all medical students should therefore be aware of the laws and regulations related to their profession in order to avoid legal trouble. In some cases, legal battles involve not just compensation, but also criminal suits.
He was speaking at a special session held by Chulalongkorn University for all 270 of its sixth-year medical students last month.
“But the best advice is that all doctors should treat their patients as they would treat their relatives,” Ittiporn said.
Teaching at Chulalongkorn, Dr Amphon Suamphan also emphasised the need for doctors to use their heart at their workplace.
“Just know how to give mercy to yourself, then you will know how make other people happy and provide treatment for them from your heart,” said the outstanding psychiatrist.
Amphon said that when doctors felt happy, their efficiency would increase and the risk of human error would be reduced. “If they are not happy, how can they make other people happy?” he added. Kasem Seresirikachorn, who will soon work as a doctor, said he was not worried about legal threats, as he believed most lawsuits stemmed from misunderstandings.
“If doctors and patients are close, the risk of lawsuits will be very low,” he said.
He is determined to help all patients to the utmost of his ability, and therefore feels there is nothing he should worry about in terms of legal action.
Medical student Thitikarn Phoungkaew, 24, said she would be heading back to her hometown of Rayong to serve the medical needs of locals there soon.
Her dream was always to be a forensic doctor who would determine the exact cause of death and play a role in seeking justice for murder victims.
“Many people think I am strange for choosing to work with dead bodies. To them, the smell is unpleasant and the scenes are disgusting,” Thitikarn said, adding, “But to me, someone must do this important job.”
The student revealed that she in fact used be afraid of ghosts, but after working with dead bodies time and again, she finds nothing can daunt her now.
Nine years ago, Thitikarn found the inspiration to become a doctor after watching the movie “Moh Jeb” (“The Extern”), which portrayed the lives of unusual medical students.
“The movie was so funny; I really liked it. I watched it several times and was finally convinced I wanted to be a doctor,” she said.
Thitikarn was awarded a scholarship from a hospital in Rayong to study at Chulalongkorn. After her graduation, she has to go back to her hometown and work at the local hospital for 12 years under the terms of the scholarship.
But to fulfil her dream of becoming a forensic doctor, which is the medical field in which there is the greatest shortage of doctors, she will ask her scholarship grantor to allow her to continue her education so she can improve her specialised skills and knowledge of forensic science.
“I plan to go back to my hometown and work there for my whole life, but I need more knowledge to improve my skills in order to establish the truth from a dead body, and that is why I have to continue my education at a higher level,” she said.
For the younger generation, she said becoming a doctor required patience and compliance with the medical code of conduct if they were truly going to help people.
“Just think about the first day you stepped into medical school and you realised that there were so many patients waiting for us.”