2013跟隨腳蹤-許亦軒

台東馬偕醫院
Taitung Mackay Memorial Hospital Reflection

This internship at Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taitung was a great experience in many ways. Throughout the five days there, I not only came to have a more comprehensive understanding of the various roles in the hospital but also was able to experience an environment that was very unique.

There were many timeslots devoted to departments other than medical personnel and these proved to be very valuable to my understanding of the general functioning of the hospital. I had already understood the importance of having a well trained and devoted nursing staff, and the interactions with the nursing department reinforced that notion. On the other hand, I had never thought about the role of social workers in this scheme of things. But after several meetings with social workers in different fields, I now have a better understanding of what they do. The physician is trained to be focused upon the immediate individual. They consider the individual’s symptoms and physical condition. However, the social worker is trained to focus upon the individual and his community. They take into account the individual’s support system, the resources available to them, and so forth. And I think that it is of the utmost importance because the individual is not influenced solely by his or her physical condition but also by the environment and those around him or her. I also had not thought about the role of a pastoral care team in a hospital because I had never heard of this degree of involvement in patient care from a team like this in the United States. After seeing what they do for almost a week, I have a greater appreciation for what they do. Their obvious focus is upon the spiritual and mental health of each individual, and by this I mean each individual in the hospital whether it is staff or patient. From shadowing them around the hospital, I have learned how to better interact with and care for patients and also how to integrate my faith into conversations with patients.

In addition to caring for patients, the pastoral care team also hosts services for hospital staff. It was encouraging to see a healthcare organization that took Christianity seriously and made an effort to create a community of believers. After experiencing that environment for five days, I believe that I now have a model for the type of setting I would most like to work in the future. Mackay Memorial Hospital was a wonderful blend of a spiritual community that I would love to have at work in a refreshing external environment and a population of more underprivileged patients that I would love to serve as a future physician. This experience has also helped me understand the importance of a hospital’s mission statement, because if I am able to agree with and get behind the mission statement of the hospital, I am better able to have a direction and purpose to work towards.

In terms of medicine though, I would have liked to see a bit more. I would have liked to perhaps shadow a physician as he goes into the operating room and another physician as he sees patients in his office. However, I very much enjoyed the testimonies given by the two physicians and the wisdom they had to impart. I think that the topics they brought up about whether becoming a physician was truly the path God wanted us to take and how we envision the intersection of our faith and training were very important questions that we must think about and wrestle with. It was extremely valuable to be able to hear their stories and to learn from their past.

Although I went to Taitung without knowing what to expect, I strongly believe that the experience was very fruitful and insightful for me personally. I learned so much about the various roles that come into play in patient care as well as the type of environment that I would like to look for in a hospital when I begin practicing. And perhaps most importantly, I was challenged to think about how Christianity relates to being a physician, and how I am called to live out this privilege that God has given me to care for others.