La Vie En Rose
When I was much younger, my vision to become a doctor was pretty one-dimensional. I wanted nothing more than to grow up to become that powerful woman in a white coat, who would make people feel better when they were sick with medicine and bandages. I’d work in my clinic from 8 to 5, and come home to my family and our little dog.
Three years into my stay as a Health Sciences major has completely changed my perspective on this. People often question our curriculum and its holistic approach. It is admittedly more radical compared to other traditional pre-med courses. However, I have come to realize that while I can dictate each function and location of the parts that comprise the human anatomy, if I don’t understand the current health situation in this country, I won’t be able to make a difference.
Knee-deep in the beginnings of our group theses, I am beginning to get a grasp of what it is to study public health. While ours is a study that hopes to be an interventional program in the public school system, I see my batch mates think of the sectors of society that need the most assistance. Words like malaria, neonatal and maternal health, public health informatics, and health insurance are becoming regular parts of our conversations. We’re bombarded with disease and disability statistics and sent out to experience work in health centers. In so many ways, our own personal missions have become very real.
There are three lasting lessons in particular that I remind myself of when I begin to doubt my goals and myself.
First is the acknowledgement that we have a long way to go in terms of achieving universal healthcare in the Philippines. Project LAAN, a social media project hoping to be able to insure families from nearby Barangay Pansol with PhilHeath coverage, was launched last December by students and teachers in the Ateneo. For only 1,200 pesos a year, people can sponsor the healthcare of a family of five from the barangay. That is three pesos a day that when totaled over the span of a month costs as much as a glass of milk tea we don’t hesitate to buy along Katipunan.
Second is that the best doctors are those that understand their patients, seeing them as more than just bodies. It is not as simple as I thought as a little girl, to cure with medicine and bandages. Each patient has his or her own story, a manner of living life that affects their health, and it takes something more than skill and knowledge to draw this from someone who may not explicitly discuss their lives.
Third is that you don’t need to be a doctor to make a difference in the country in the aspect of public health. In our development studies class, we are taught that public health is affected by all sectors. Economics and its attempts to alleviate and explain poverty is just as important.
I am not here to glorify the course I am in or discuss its advantages over other programs. The point I would like to make is that each person needs to realize their capacity to change aspects of public health in the country. The message I hope this will convey is one that stresses the value of care—and how it really does not cost as much as you think. It takes a week’s allowance, a small project, a few minutes of thought. What is crucial is that you stop, consider your capabilities, and think about what you can do to make a few lives better in this country.
