Tag: NEET

21 occupational Risks to doctors and nurses, while performing their duties


Doctor save the patient, but save yourself also.

Working of a doctor and nurses is not free from risk to themselves. The risk is generally underestimated, although it often involves major  risk  to life and may be frightening. Problem is that  majority of people, society and governing bodies  and even doctors themselves do not perceive or acknowledge it many times  the risks seriously.  But since  these risks are increasing exponentially everyday, because of changing scenario, they should be known to students, who want to take medicine as a profession. They need to take an informed decision. There are lesser set procedures, lack of awareness, not protective equipment or supportive society, governance and  laws, at most of  the places globally, and  doctors continue to work  in danger zones. These risks can be of varied types. Contracting the diseases is just one of them.

Even when doctors and nurses contact the diseases, there may or may not be proper support for further treatment, compensation and rehabilitation. Most of the time, they  have to fend for themselves. Because quite many of them , in government and private sector work on adhoc basis, temporary posts and on contract. Doctors  may have following risks, readers can add, if I have missed few:

Occupational health hazards

1.Tuberculosis: Common among health care  workers

2.Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C

3.HIV

  1. Influenza, Swine flu and other viruses of similar type.

5.Chicken pox

6.Rabies

7.Patients some times comes with unknown viral illnesses, which can not be tested. At the time, when treatment is going on, even diagnosis is not known. Doctor can contract these bacteria or viruses. There can be many more.

Risks related to stress and overwork

8.Depression, suicide, hopelessness

  1. Burnout.

10.Restricted social life

11.prone to alcohol/ drug abuse/ drug exposure.

Stress of balancing Family life: Kind of work and night duties effect family life very adversely. 12. Specially  female doctors. Completing  family will effect their careers, most of time.

13.High rates of divorces

14.Stress related diseases

15.Life style diseases: mainly sedentary work and long hours of working, makes them prone to life style diseases like ischemic heart disease , hypertension etc.

16.Exposure to radiations: specially in radiology and oncology. female doctors are more affected.

17.Lack of exposure to sunlight: effects bones , deficiency of vit D and predisposes to depression

  1.   Risk of catching resistant infections and sometimes there is risk that they carry these deadly bacteria to their homes. So their family members and children are at risk.
  2.   Risk of  working in disaster area and transport of sick , floods, earthquakes. Accidents of    ambulances .
  3.   Change in natural bio flora  of doctors and nurses. It is replaced by hospital bio flora. If they get infection, it is difficult to treat.
  4.  Risks because of legal problems and violent patients:  adds to stress Patients may not have favourable prognosis. But it is common for doctors to be blamed  even for naturally poor prognosis of the  disease. Legal trouble adds to further stress.

    –verbal abuse and threatening is very common. So spoiled mood unnecessarily.

– fear of  physical   assault can really harm doctors and family members.

– excessive and unilateral regulation puts doctors at the receiving end of the discontent.

Worst part is that our systems are not defined to prevent, treat or compensate or even acknowledge for these big disasters, if it happens to healers. These problems are not known to students, when they decide to take medicine, nor they are taught in medical school. Most of the time they have to fend for themselves, if problems occur.

Administrators and regulators refrain to study data that would establish and quantify the occupational hazards of being a doctor and nurses. Some of these hazards may be known, but there is no comprehensive analysis of workplace risk for physicians and nurses, like those that have been done for other professions. As physicians, we have a sense of the risk, and yet we remain engaged, continuing to care for our patients as we know  “these things” happen. Perhaps society prefers to remain blissfully ignorant of the sacrifice and risk their doctors take on, comforted by the fantasy of the serene  hospital. Perhaps we  all despise to let reality and data shatter the illusion.

Everyday globally, the doctors and the nurses  greet the new day and return to their work of taking care of their patients, knowing well the risk  involved.

Maybe it is time that we are little more aware  and acknowledge that even doing everything in best manner and honestly , we are in a  conflict zone and  we are all in harm’s way. Just be careful and be mindful that  doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers,  may get  sickened, injured, disabled, or can be dragged to court or harassed even  as they care for their patients in best manner.

Doctor save the patient, but save yourself also.

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NEET Scams: Is unfair selection at medical college seat, root cause for poor health system?


A famous axiom “as you sow so shall you reap “  has an application to health system. As NEET has been implemented and there has been some effort to find out information about  admissions to medical colleges, at least tip of the  iceberg is getting visible.  More you know or read the news items about NEET, more one is convinced that industry  selling medical college seats has been quite powerful and practically every technique to sell seats is prevalent to by pass the merit and deny seat to deserving candidates. These meritorious children, who are denied seats could have been   good doctors and   real custodian for the health of people.  But  if for some reason, business prevails and government fails to prevent this cruel and corrupt selling of medical seats,  an Einstein brain is not required to  guess the whole malaise prevalent in health system.  Foundation  of  medical system is suffused with sand rather than touch stone of merit. It is the business and fraud which is rampant.

Astronomical fee of medical colleges  without proper facilities and medical education can be born only by investors and not good candidates.   It is the people and society, who will be the real sufferers in future. Therefore resentment to such system should come from the society. If every one is happy by the arrangement , then one has to introspect, whether they really deserve  kind of  doctors, they wish.

 

Following may be MEAGER TIP OF THE  ICEBERG

 

Sitting, retired HC judges under scanner for MBBS admissions scam http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/sitting-retired-hc-judges-under-scanner-for-mbbs-admission-scam/articleshow/60772522.cms

As medical education hit by scams, planned reforms remain in backburner

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/as-medical-education-hit-by-scams-planned-reforms-remain-in-backburner/articleshow/60787796.cms

How NEET high scorers, pvt institutes colluded to make a quick buck | HT Special

http://www.hindustantimes.com/education/some-neet-top-scorers-blocked-seats-that-were-later-sold-to-low-rank-holders-by-pvt-institutes/story-UgVXOeOZ5xgIAWkRj3s6fO.html

 

 

 

 

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Expensive medical college seat:Is it worth it.


 

At a time when students, parents and even doctors are uncertain whether opting for medical college along with the vulnerability and risk associated with   becoming a doctor is worth it or not, some are naive enough to pay millions as fee for medical education and for securing a seat of MBBS. The noble intentions of NEET were to minimize wastage of seats due to multiple admission procedures running concurrently and to do away with the variable criteria for selection used for admissions. But this time there has been unregulated steep increase in fees of private medical colleges. 

(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/under-new-rules-less-than-50-private-mbbs-seats-filled/articleshow/60200421.cms).

Isn’t it surprising  that a coveted course, with more than a million  students vying for it, ends up with vacant seats especially in private colleges?  The answer is not difficult to guess. There has been a huge increase in fees by private colleges, which along with disillusionment about medical profession has lead to change in mind of candidates.

It is ironical that the medical profession is regulated, but medical business or medical education is not.  Such business of producing doctors based on their paying capacity should be clearly trounced for the benefit of public. Foundations of healthcare should be on touchstone of merit, ethics and character and not based on business deals. Therefore meritorious students, especially from average backgrounds, who opt to become doctors feel cheated when they pay massive fee to buy a seat. It is an insult to the very virtue of merit which should have been the sole criteria for these admissions.

Truth  cannot remain hidden for long.  It is to be realized that getting into medical college is a minuscule component of the process of becoming a good doctor.  Once they opt for this profession, the real tough and prolonged battle begins. Quite a few successful candidates may eventually feel that the money spent and the hard work may not be worth it especially those candidates who may have invested in heavy fees or bought a seat in medical colleges with hefty amount. Some of them, who invested millions for becoming doctors, will be even probably unable to recover their investments. The students with strong financial backgrounds may be more benefited as they can become investors or health managers. But for others, it could be a dream turning into a nightmare.

Those who invest heavily for getting medical education would eventually try  to recover their money after securing a degree. This definitely clouds their judgement in any future decisions that they make as doctor. On the other hand, meritorious students may not be able to get a seat. These will eventually have an impact not only on the quality of doctors but also on their attitude towards this profession.

The government should regulate these fees and also ensure that if a heavy fee is charged, then it should be spent on medical education of students only. It  should not take a form of just any another money minting industry to be used for other purposes.

The foundation of  medical education should not be based on principles of business but should be on pure merit alone. There is a need for uniformity,  proper infrastructure and regulated standards for these heavily priced medical colleges. There is a need to set up quality medical colleges instead of launching lot of inferior institutions every year who just work for minting money rather providing good doctors to the society. Our society needs good doctors, selected on the basis of merit and their medical education has to be cheap and good. If the society continues to accept such below par practices, it has to introspect, whether it actually deserves to get good doctors.

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Fading charm of medical profession:complex working scenarios for doctors- no solution in sight

With the evolving medical science and health care getting intertwined with business, braided changes in medical regulation and law are not an unexpected development. New models of medical regulation, business and law in health care have emerged and progressed in last few decades. Despite a wish to govern and regulate medical profession strictly, the laws and regulations still have to go a long way to provide real justice to everyone. No one really knows how to regulate this difficult area, which encompasses life and death, deals with extremes of poverty and riches, mortality and morbidity, pain and relief , sadness and happiness, smiles and sorrow and other uncountable emotions, all intertwined with financial aspects. But the wish of administrators to govern medical profession strictly with punishments is not new. Hammurabi (5000 years back) at the start of civilization believed that doctors needed to be punished in case there was a poor outcome. Strangely it was at a time, when no one understood the complexity of human body and the limitations of medical science; even basic anatomy and physiology of body was not discovered.

Stark reality of complex medical scenario hits the studious and meritorious medical students on the face when they come out of college and start working in present environment. After a difficult time at medical college with slave like duties, an unsettled family life and with no money, these brilliant doctors begin their struggle. They work at various hospitals to gain more experience and slowly acclimatize themselves to the real problems of this profession. They realize that the actual medical world is far different than what was apparent from inside the medical college. Suddenly they find that their lives undergo a sea change. The goals that were taught in the medical college are now just not enough and they actually constitute only smaller part of a much larger system. And the scenario seems to getting worse for doctors with each passing day.

There is increasing discontentment amongst doctors because of complex and punishing system in addition to the unrealistic expectations of society which takes the enthusiasm out of these young bright doctors. Every day now, the informal discussions with colleagues regularly dwell more on problems faced by doctors, rather than real goals. There are routinely instances of verbal abuse and threat for no fault of theirs. Some unlucky ones get physically assaulted as well. Sometimes there are threats of dragging the doctor into a lawsuit which sometimes do really happen. Even if court, after years of deliberation, does decide in favour of the doctor, the harm to the doctor in the form of mental harassment and tarnished reputation is already done and that is something which cannot be undone even after he has been proved innocent.
Even if such events don’t happen to everyone, the very fear of such possible scenarios and their possible complications always lurks in the back of the mind and affects the treatment because the doctor tries to be doubly safe. The fear and anxiety about the actual treatment, favourable and unfavourable prognosis of patient always colours the final decision in treatment. Many become punching bags in place of inept medical system and invisible medical industry. Everyday irritating discussions, arguments, complaints, disagreements add to further pain and discontentment.
And if these were not enough, these problems have been further compounded by unnecessary utterances by celebrities against doctors, negative projections by media who never acknowledge the great work done day and night by doctors. Stray mistakes by some doctor, or treatment failure due to a poor prognosis and sometimes due to system failure are projected and widely highlighted by media and celebrities to tarnish image of all doctors .Though these do sensationalise their news and promotes their business, but the repercussions are heavy and it breaks the trust of the public in their doctors. This eventually does harm to innocent public in the long run but has also done enough irreparable damage to the medical profession.
If children of current generation do not hold the profession in high esteem, then obviously they wouldn’t want to be part of this profession. And if brilliant students shun this profession, then how would society get good doctors? If there is always fear in their mind, no one can do justice to his job and this you’ll all agree, applies to all professions

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