"Hi Sir JB!
"Thank you for posting your personal opinion about your internship in UP-PGH. I agree with you that UP-PGH is NOT for everyone (for it is only for the brave ones who apply, the qualified who get accepted, and the patient and diligent ones who persevere), but I also believe in looking at the positive side of every situation.
"I apologize if by any chance you misinterpreted my article as falsely describing the realities in UP-PGH. And I am also sorry if, as an intern, you were "envious of your friends who did internship elsewhere", and if you felt the "absolute insularity of the people you met" here at UP-PGH. I cannot comment on the residency programs since I am not yet a resident, but as far as internship goes, I stand firm with what I have written down based on my own personal experiences.
"Also, I am not, in anyway, putting down or belittling graduates doing internship in other hospitals. I think it would be too immature and close-minded for one to interpret and understand my article as such. Because in the bigger picture, all of us regardless of where we are (private hospitals, government institution, etc.) have equal responsibility in uplifting the health status of the Filipino people.
"Yes, each of us go through difficulties everyday at PGH (and interns in other hospitals as well), but as I've always emphasized, everything is just a matter of perspective. At the end of the day, we are all still doctors, and the common end point would still be patient care and patient outcomes.
"I wish you all the best in your career and life in general!
"Cheers,
"Fred Ting
"--
"Domine Opus Tuum - Lord the Work is Yours! - Habakkuk 3:2
"-Fred Ting
"Post-Graduate Intern
"Philippine General Hospital
"Health and Peace Advocate, Writer, Lasallian, Filipino."
I graduated from UPCM less than 10 years ago and was required to do internship in PGH. Dr. Ting's and Dr. Chong's blog made me a bit nostalgic remembering both the negatives and positives in my training. There's always multiple sides to a story and different people will always view the same thing differently (whether it's purple or periwinkle). Internship is PGH was probably one of the most (if not the most) physically, mentally, and emotionally draining time in my life. However, I think those times made my residency and fellowship (both in a different institution) flew by. Is this the best way to train interns? No one can say because unless you train in both PGH and another institution and can compare both then it's just another person expressing their opinion.
ReplyDeleteDuring the rough times, I felt it was my obligation to do "manong work" for the discounted tuition fee we get and it's time to give back to the Filipino people. After at least 8 years of college/med school education do I think it's right to train us by having clerks/intern monitor urine output using a plastic bottle with marked numbers or ambubag a person without family or funds for a ventilator 24/7 between interns? Nope, but I did learn I was good at basic math and have strong hands!
JB, after reading your blog I hope I'm not one of those that are not welcoming to PGIs. I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but unjust treatments of "outsiders" happens to every institution and I had a similar experience doing residency in a different program. "Barbs" or barbarian was a derogatory term used to describe someone who is not members of any frat/sorority which sort of gives us an inkling the mentality of hierarchy there in PGH. The derogatory remarks of "seniors" whether residents or consultants were notorious in PGH back then and I hope they improved. I did not do residency in PGH not because I'm not "brave", "qualified", or "diligent" but once I had a choice I decided quality of life can be obtained elsewhere without sacrificing my training. Given the choice, will I do my internship in PGH? Maybe... I did learn a lot and made good friends. If you asked me during internship, I would have said no. Do I think it's perfect and everyone should go there? No!
"I agree with you that UP-PGH is NOT for everyone (for it is only for the brave ones who apply, the qualified who get accepted, and the patient and diligent ones who persevere)." Uh... ok then. Nothing like condescending though terminating cliches.
ReplyDeleteI dunno about everyone else, but this appears to imply that those who don't apply at UP-PGH are intellectual cowards altogether, instead of being enlightened that there are other places where learning both the theoretical and clinical aspects of medicine can be much more maximised.
...that those who don't get accepted in UP-PGH are probably mediocre... even though the rejected applicant is just as good as the first lucky one who got accepted, but didn't get in because he didn't make the quota or doesn't have a backer. I wonder, does intern Ting ever stop to think that maybe a big chunk of medical students do not learn by being subjected to nothing but scutwork and a daily hefty dose of abuse?
And I guess those who chose to do their internship somewhere else (i.e., besides UP-PGH) - where scutwork may be just as bad, but hands-on experience, and perhaps theoretical learning and training in clinical decision-making, is just as good, if not better - are nothing but impatient slackers in his book.
"I think it would be too immature and close-minded for one to interpret and understand my article as such." I'd give him one thing... intern Ting seems to be adept at the art of using deflections as well.
I don't know if intern Ting is aware of this... but people come with varying degrees of life experiences... so it's no surprise that different people will have different ways of interpreting what he wrote. With the way he wrote his article, it's easy for colleagues who chose to do internship in other hospitals to interpret it as condescending and arrogant (unless that's his intention from the start as his way of rubbing it in the faces of people). And seeing from the different comments in Dr. Chong's previous blog entry alone, I think it's safe to assume that there are a whole lot of non-UP-PGH graduates out there who probably reacted the same negative way. But I guess this is but "immature" and "close-minded" through the rose-tinted sight of intern Ting. And him screening/filtering/vetoing/moderating the comments he's receiving speaks volumes.
I think what intern Ting needs to do is to discard any arrogant notion that UP-PGH is the only place to be. I suggest he tries visiting and experiencing other institutions first... come in contact with both sides of the coin first... before writing a one-sided article as the one he posted in his blogsite. Because at the end of the day, what patients want by their side is someone who is competent with BOTH medical skills, knowledge, and compassion... which I'm absolutely sure many other hospitals besides UP-PGH have done/are doing a great job in training their medical students to do.
Once he does that, he'll be able to see that there's a vast world outside the bubble that is UP-PGH. He'll then see what big-boy pants look like. Hopefully in time, once he starts experiencing the real world, he'll realise that he needs to trade in those pull-ups he's wearing for a pair of the real thing.
No, I'm not mad bro... just telling it as I see it.
Thanks for the comment!
ReplyDeletePGH is only as strong as their weakest link, and I personally know a lot of very weak links who ended up not doing residency, who hawk questionnable, non-evidence-based treatments, and who wound up committing suicide after graduation. Dr. Ting will benefit from remembering that. And should he end up taking the US boards and doing his training here, he will very quickly get hit with the reality that PGH does not even register as a blip in the academic radar outside the very small environment known as the Philippines. And hopefully he'll be a better person for learning that lesson.
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