Indexing Title: JPINGUL's Medical Anecdotal Report  [04-5]

MAR Title: Breaking the Language Barrier

Date of Medical Observation: August 15, 2004

Narration:

It was mid-morning when I was walking along the corridor of the surgery ward when a middle-aged woman approached me and asked, “Doctor kalian po i-sasanction yung pasyente ko?”  (Doctor when will you sanction my patient?)  I was confused, amused and asked why would I sanction anyone; moreover, sanction a patient.

I turned to the woman and asked her where the patient was and she gestured me to follow her.  Upon entering the room, I saw a 23-year-old male patient who had head trauma because of a vehicular accident and found that there were clotted blood inside his nostrils.  And the woman, who turned out to be the patient’s mother gestured doing a suctioning procedure while saying that the nose had been clogged.

I turned around trying to stop myself from laughing.  I took the suction machine and some cotton applicators and provided the need for the patient.  I corrected the mother that I was suctioning the nose, and to sanction was to give punishment.

Insights:

Reinforcement:

Communication is a very important tool to be able to heal, understand, and connect.  Being physicians we must able to understand clearly what our patients are trying to say so that we may able to diagnose and treat properly.  In turn we must also be sure that our patients have understood our advise.

Many medical terms have been shared by other doctors heard from patients trying to quote these terminologies, ending with much confusion:

“Doctor, nag-sisissors ang anak ko, hindi kasi sya nakainom ng pheno-barbi-doll.  Pwede po ba natin sya pa extray o ipa CT skull.”

Having received more education, we as physicians have more responsibility to investigate, clarify, and ask questions from our patients so that both sides of the doctor-patient relationship are clear on the matter or disease at hand. 

Discovery:

            Physicians shared their experiences in the provinces and how much it has helped them mature and realize the great need for health of our country.  No community ever turned down a doctor to practice in their territory, no matter how foreign the doctor may be.  Doctors were always welcome in places where there have been no doctor for many years.  And the first barrier to break is the dialect or the language. 

            To learn a new language will take a month of memorizing, associating, repeating, and actually using the new language.  Continually improving and clarifying a term as it comes.  It is added hard work for a doctor who is practicing in a place where no body speaks English or Filipino, but the pay off in the end is very rewarding spiritually and emotionally.