Reflections on our Healthcare System

I have been on both sides of the South African health care system since the lockdown was enacted – I volunteered and assisted for a couple of months at a Clinic in Orange Farm, and unfortunately had a family member spend a few weeks at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH) due to a terminal cancer diagnosis. My experiences as such have been contrasting and have shown both the best and the worst that our health care system has to offer.

The best aspects have come from doctors and nurses showing unbelievable courage, determination, empathy, work ethic, and ingenuity in running a clinic safely and smoothly in the light of a pandemic. Doctors and nurses who see literally hundreds of patients every day, and yet manage to give empathetic and personalized care to people. Doctors and nurses who take the time (despite the unimaginable patient burden) to teach and encourage students in every little aspect of patient care, from examining chest x-rays to dispensing medication, to taking adequate histories and communicating effectively with patients across all spectrums. Watching team leaders develop new plans to safely manage patient-load and to design systems to triage an entire community has been beyond awe-inspiring and incredibly motivating.

However, the one thing I feel I can take away from both scenarios is to say without a shadow of a doubt the kind of doctor I don’t want to become, and I hope to one day run a ward in the way it absolutely should be.

THE WARBURG EFFECT (Normal Metabolism VS Cancer Metabolism)

Here’s a quick video explaining the Warburg effect and cancer cell metabolism

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MY FIRST SURGERY EXPERIENCE

RECORDED ON 5 FEBRUARY 2020

This was my first time observing a surgery, and it was every bit as exciting as I could have imagined! Between work and studying, I’ve been slow to edit or record much this year, but I finally got around to this one – hope you enjoy it!

What’s YOUR Story?

These are strange and scary times indeed! Everywhere we look, every social media account, every Instagram post, every news article is centered on one thing and one thing only – Coronavirus. The impact that it is having across the world is mind-boggling to see,  and the stories of the effects (and after-effects) it is having on a global scale is sometimes difficult to comprehend in its scope.

I would like to open this blog post up to anyone who reads –

I would love to know your story and how this has affected you and your family? Where in the world are you? How is your country handling the pandemic? How has it affected you personally? What are your daily lives like at the moment? What are your circumstances? What are you most worried about? What has been the hardest thing for you to deal with at this stage? How do you foresee the coming weeks and months?

Feel free to write as much as you’d like! Who knows – maybe we can gain hope or perspective from the life you’re living right now!

It’s the one great thing about the internet – it allows us to connect with people across the world and to hear and share their stories. I’ve certainly shared many of mine over the last couple years, and would love to know yours now!

Keep safe!

Wade

HOW I STUDY IN MEDICAL SCHOOL (And Tips)

This is something that has been requested quite a bit on the YouTube channel, and so I finally sat down and did a video on how I study in medical school. Personally, I don’t feel like it’s anything special or unique – these are just the techniques that I have found work best for me at this point in my studies. I hope you enjoy the video! It is quite long as I tried to describe how my studying progresses through each block and for exams, as well as some general tips I think could help with your own studies.

My First Clinic Visit

This being our very first visit to a community clinic, I was feeling quite nervous when we stepped off the bus at Levai Mbatha Clinic in Evaton. Our little group was ushered into a doctor’s room, and we were divided into groups of 3 and assigned different wards to assist in. My group was assigned first the labour and maternity ward, followed by the women’s health ward, and finally (if there was still time) we could assist in casualty.

What an incredible learning experience! All my nerves were replaced almost immediately by excitement because the Sisters were very engaging and were happy for us to be (quite literally) as hands-on as possible! We were shown around the ward and within 5 minutes we were being guided through an entire examination of a woman in labour.

School Program with SADAG

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I studied psychology for my undergrad and completed my honours degree in psychology back in 2010.

One of my first volunteering experiences came as a consequence of these degrees – during the final year of my undergrad, a non-profit organization (NPO) called the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) presented a speech at one of our lectures, asking for potential volunteers. I signed up and underwent training to become a telephone counsellor. As a telephonic counsellor, we dealt with a variety of mental health queries – from simple referrals to suicidal callers. It was a humbling experience and it taught me how to confront and control my nerves, and how to better operate under stressful conditions. The client interaction was very rewarding.

As well as volunteering as a telephonic counsellor, I also participated in several educational presentations at various colleges, police stations, and mental health awareness events. I found these talks to be particularly helpful to the recipients; not only was a presentation given, brochures were handed out and there were also several counsellors on hand to answer any personal questions afterwards. These experiences taught me not just to listen to clients, but to actually hear what they are saying. They helped me realise how important compassion and empathy are, and the bigger impact that disease has beyond the individual.