The Epic of Muzza Wu

I am now half way through medical school. Clinical years thus far has been a very tumultuous start. There have been highs and there have been lows, there also have been so many days I have second guessed my decision to enter medicine and the thought of quitting has come to mind more often than I would like to admit. However, today's post will not be a post to complain, today's post is a reflection and a realisation...and not a good one.       As I get further and further into my clinical years, I have come to realise that it's not that easy to truly empathasize and think as if you are in the patients shoes. It is truly much easiser said than done and even if you think you are empathetic, you may not actually be that empathetic. As an illustration, in medical student one typically has to learn clerkship; to talk to patients to come towards a diagnosis. Well you see, as I talk to patients, my mind is rapidly thinking about what ailment this pateint could be suffering from

Today I started my first day of a posting I've been vehemently waiting for since the first year of meical school! It was time for paediatrics! First I'll tell you why I love paediatrics so much. Back in my first year, I was privelleged to have been able to do some clinical work in the paediatric department during my respiratory block. It was then I clerked my first asthma case, saw my first cystic fibrosis case, clerked a fever for a toddler from a caretaker. The range of diseases in paediarics was so broad and I was always anicipating what interesting case I'd see the next time I had a clinical day. However, that's not the main reason I love paeds. It was in paeds where I actually thought that I was taking history was to help the patient as a whole. It is absulotuely loveley to clerk history from parents because you can see how much they love thier children when they talk about them, the pain in their eyes as they think about the child's suffering, the flicker of