ONE thing that the young doctors who have just completed their intern year at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) agree on, is the fact that teamwork is necessary to get you through the year.
The Barbados Advocate got a chance to speak to some of the interns that were being honoured by the doctors of the QEH for the outstanding work that was done by them during the Intern Year 2015-2016 after the ceremony held at the hospital yesterday morning. Dr. Kimberlee Clarke, who is looking to go into the field of anaesthesiology, said that teamwork is something that you will need to depend on to help you throughout the internship year.
“It’s best to work as a team, not only with your fellow colleagues, but with other staff members in the hospital like the nurses… Just working with the team as a whole,” she explained.
She added that it made the job easier if everyone worked as a team. Her other colleagues – Dr. Sara Dana-Patel, Dr. Joeleita Agard and Dr. Cheyanne Francis – all agreed and stressed that teamwork was important.
They noted however, that even though teamwork was important, that the patient was just as important and in some cases, more important. Francis, who plans to do a Masters in Public Health, said that “if you put the patients first, you can’t go wrong”.
The women were part of a programme that the hospital has each year, where they train the newly graduated medical doctors. The internship gives them a chance to work long hours, 30-hour shifts every three days, and gives them field experience.
Agard, who plans to go into Public Health in the future, said that even though the hours are long and tiring, the results are so rewarding. She, along with her other colleagues, agreed that helping the patient was the best and most rewarding part of the job. “It was even more rewarding sending a patient home healthy and happy after you did all that you could to help that patient.”
Dana-Patel, who plans to go into family medicine, noted that she thinks the internship programme sets the foundation for them as young doctors to develop personally and professionally, because it gave them the opportunity to reflect and to learn how to be patient, how to persevere, and a sense of responsibility and commitment, and most importantly, time management along with how to be a team player.
They advised any new doctors going into the programme to be sure to put their patients first, be a team player and help their colleagues out and to try their best to stay humble. Dana-Patel added that it would also be important to remember that you are not there for yourself, you are there to provide the best care that you can for your patients. (CF)
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