INDEXING TITLE: JPINGUL’S Medical Anecdotal Report [5-06]

TITLE: Volunteerism

PERIOD OF MEDICAL OBSERVATION: July 7, 2005

NARRATION:

He was a patient diagnosed with hypertension, he was being treated at the OPD on a regular basis, then one day he brought in a relative, because he highly

appreciated the services in the hospital.  Then a friend, then he was bringing in patients whom he did not have personal relationships with.  then he would

say,  “Care of ko po.”

It was a Wednesday afternoon and I was at the OPD when he approached me and said that there was an unidentified employee of Ospital ng Maynila (OM), that

went to his house and said to stop bringing patients to OM.  This alarmed him for it happened for the first time, someone actually threatened him for helping

patients find doctors at OM.

My reaction at that time was that of apathy, I did not care, for it did not concern me, so I simply advised him not to pay attention and to keep on doing what he

has done in the past.

He told me that other people asked him in the past why he was doing all these.  Was he doing this for popularity?  Is he planning to run as a chairman in

the future?  Is he secretly charging patients and was actually benefiting from his activities?

He did not get any benefit or profit from what he was doing, but why does he keep doing it.  He simply answered them that he just wanted to help, and that

was it.  Patients get to seek immediate attention, and did not have to wait in line, get operated immediately, and go home soon after.  Then it dawned

to me that he was doing what I was doing, and what happened to him might also happen to me. 

INSIGHTS: (discovery, stimulus, REINFORCEMENT), (physical, PSYCHOSOCIAL, ETHICAL)

He was a volunteer, doing something (in fact, sacrificing) and not getting paid, and I think residents are volunteers too. Consultants are

volunteers, medical clerks and interns are volunteers, just like this patient.

We volunteer our time, our money, and our talents:

Time

Going on duty takes away time spent for our friends, family, for activities that we someday long to do, like a vacation somewhere or an art work to finish.

We spend the hours in the hospital looking after patients, we said good-bye to the weekends, the holidays, the special events.  Even sometimes

neglecting to look after ourselves.

Money

Medical clerks take money out of their pockets, to buy needs so that when a patient comes, there are lesser things to be toxic about.  Residents look for ways to

facilitate the needs of patients for operation.  We donate these because we believe that our donation will go a long way, our donation will save lives.

Talents

We volunteer our talents, the more we use our talents, the better we become.  One may be talented in speaking, others in writing, others in operating,

others in interpersonal skills, by working together, we are set for take off.  Metal sharpens metal, this is how doctors become better doctors.  The diversity

of resources from each person benefits the patient, who comes in the hospital and be treated by a multi-talented medical staff.

It would sound better to hear, that I volunteer to work, rather that I was forced to work.  As this begins to sink into us, then we don’t have the problem

of getting up early to go to the hospital, we don’t have to be forced to work, we just do this because we love healing others, we love serving others.