At my work as an intern at a government dental hospital,each day at work is a challenge where different situations present themselves, where a young intern's learning of 4 years is put to test. It is the best platform to analyse oneself as to how far the education we have got is useful in developing our clinical skills.
I am through with almost half of my internship period and all this while i was really focused on perfecting the jobs that i should be knowing in order to be able to practice as a dentist. I would always think to myself that whether or not i pursue dentistry further, if i have a degree in my hand, it means i am trained in all the work a BDS graduate should know.
Hence, i take my fillings, extractions, root canals and everything i can learn very seriously. For me, internship is a period of extensive learning and experience that we will find very hard to gain later on since we have very senior and highly experienced faculty to guide us. I have seen many others sharing the same opinion as me, in this regard. It is really good to see and hear of so many students and interns so sincere towards their profession. Now taking this into notice, one could feel very satisfied with the scenario. And I particularly was pretty satisfied with my sincerity UNTIL YESTERDAY.
I am posted in the Oral Surgery department right now. It is one department i am really fond of since my 3rd year. Extractions has been my favourite things so far. So i was really enjoying it. I had set a target for myself to acquire perfection in closed extractions and also learn open extractions and few other procedures if allowed. But yesterday i got the chance to see two cases of Medical emergencies in the clinic.
Two patients went unconscious and our senior faculty members dealt with them perfectly. They immediately diagnosed one as a case of syncope and the other as a mild epileptic seizure. And as far as i along with other interns are concerned, I admit we could not tell the difference. I felt really worried. I thought, if i cannot identify the kind of emergency, how will i manage it.
We have always had ''Management of Medical emergencies'' as an essential part of our course. So i am not complaining or blaming anything or anybody but the fault lies on both sides. I'm sure just like me everyone prepared this topic very well for the exam and wrote the answer beautifully. But what use is the education that cannot be applied. I felt at a loss of knowledge in that situation. I also realise that my seniors are highly experienced and have handled lots of such cases, which is why they were so prompt and perfect in responding and saving the patient's life. I know if i acquire that experience i can be the same but my point is for a thing as big as saving someone's life can't our education system employ some more programmes? Can't we have a programme for management of medical emergencies as part of the BDS course? In fact not just BDS but any health related field so that in such cases or in any other situation or place we can have a full fledged and bigger trained team for the management of medical emergencies.
Although the topic is very much part of the course and i am sure just like my college, everywhere else too the seniors lay much stress on it, a thing as delicate as this requires much more training and much more preparedness.
There should be programmes for training not just in handling emergencies at the dental office but at any place.As long as we have to do without such a programme in our course, I suggest all the students to please take this topic seriously and actually learn about it not just to pass an exam but thinking that it could help you save a life someday. Make sure you read your texts well to be able to diagnose and then to manage it and then when you come to the clinics and then come across such cases, never lose the chance to see how the seniors handle it.
In a nutshell, with all due respect to the fillings,extractions, root canals, dentures,implants;
training for medical emergency management is the thing requiring utmost priority for learning dentists.
I am through with almost half of my internship period and all this while i was really focused on perfecting the jobs that i should be knowing in order to be able to practice as a dentist. I would always think to myself that whether or not i pursue dentistry further, if i have a degree in my hand, it means i am trained in all the work a BDS graduate should know.
Hence, i take my fillings, extractions, root canals and everything i can learn very seriously. For me, internship is a period of extensive learning and experience that we will find very hard to gain later on since we have very senior and highly experienced faculty to guide us. I have seen many others sharing the same opinion as me, in this regard. It is really good to see and hear of so many students and interns so sincere towards their profession. Now taking this into notice, one could feel very satisfied with the scenario. And I particularly was pretty satisfied with my sincerity UNTIL YESTERDAY.
I am posted in the Oral Surgery department right now. It is one department i am really fond of since my 3rd year. Extractions has been my favourite things so far. So i was really enjoying it. I had set a target for myself to acquire perfection in closed extractions and also learn open extractions and few other procedures if allowed. But yesterday i got the chance to see two cases of Medical emergencies in the clinic.
Two patients went unconscious and our senior faculty members dealt with them perfectly. They immediately diagnosed one as a case of syncope and the other as a mild epileptic seizure. And as far as i along with other interns are concerned, I admit we could not tell the difference. I felt really worried. I thought, if i cannot identify the kind of emergency, how will i manage it.
We have always had ''Management of Medical emergencies'' as an essential part of our course. So i am not complaining or blaming anything or anybody but the fault lies on both sides. I'm sure just like me everyone prepared this topic very well for the exam and wrote the answer beautifully. But what use is the education that cannot be applied. I felt at a loss of knowledge in that situation. I also realise that my seniors are highly experienced and have handled lots of such cases, which is why they were so prompt and perfect in responding and saving the patient's life. I know if i acquire that experience i can be the same but my point is for a thing as big as saving someone's life can't our education system employ some more programmes? Can't we have a programme for management of medical emergencies as part of the BDS course? In fact not just BDS but any health related field so that in such cases or in any other situation or place we can have a full fledged and bigger trained team for the management of medical emergencies.
Although the topic is very much part of the course and i am sure just like my college, everywhere else too the seniors lay much stress on it, a thing as delicate as this requires much more training and much more preparedness.
There should be programmes for training not just in handling emergencies at the dental office but at any place.As long as we have to do without such a programme in our course, I suggest all the students to please take this topic seriously and actually learn about it not just to pass an exam but thinking that it could help you save a life someday. Make sure you read your texts well to be able to diagnose and then to manage it and then when you come to the clinics and then come across such cases, never lose the chance to see how the seniors handle it.
In a nutshell, with all due respect to the fillings,extractions, root canals, dentures,implants;
training for medical emergency management is the thing requiring utmost priority for learning dentists.
