"Are you a good physician" by Dr Kianseng Ng Are you a good physician? What makes a good physician? A brilliant mind? A nimble wit is certainly an asset in the practice of medicine. But are you good because you are an intellectual wizard who can conjure up the magic of healing each time a patient utters “Abracadabra”? I believe that every good physician should possess at least five qualities, a spirit of excellence, integrity, long suffering, love for patients and humility. We can remember these qualities on our own fingertips. The thumb stands for the spirit of excellence. We give the thumbs up sign to indicate that something is excellent or worthy of approval. The index finger points and we point fingers when something goes wrong. The index finger is right confronting wrong and it represents integrity. The middle finger speaks of long suffering. It is the longest of the fingers and we should imitate what it represents and that is to be long in our patience. The ring finger talks of love; this is where we place the wedding ring as a seal on the covenant of love. The last finger is the smallest and shortest one. It reminds me of humility. I must put on the garment of humility and consider myself the least among my brethren in the medical fraternity. This then is the hand of healing. Spirit of excellence The spirit of excellence is the desire to be the best we can be. It is the maximum exercise of our gifts and abilities entrusted to us. It involves matching our practice with our potential. In a profession where we are dealing with the lives of people, we cannot afford to be lackadaisical. The wisest of all men, Solomon said, “whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might.” Doctors must pursue excellence at all times, in all things and at all costs. Integrity Integrity is defined as the quality of being honest and morally upright. Nowadays doctors on graduation are no longer asked to take the Hippocratic Oath or some similar pledge. The Hippocratic Oath may appear to be some archaic instructions etched on the papyrus papers of ancient times. However, true wisdom is never outdated. Today we doctors need to subscribe to and earnestly, meticulously follow what Hippocrates prescribed eons ago. One of the pillars of the Hippocrates Oath is “with purity and with holiness, I will pass my life and practise my art. In whatsoever house I enter I will go into them for the benefit of the sick and will abstain from any act of mischief and corruption and from the seduction of female or male.” (Hippocrates 460-377 B.C.). When patients place their total trust in our hands, we must respond in a way that is worthy of that trust. Longsuffering Longsuffering is another word for patience. We must be able to suffer fools gladly or else our work will suffer greatly. We live in a time when the world is whizzing past us at the speed of a supersonic jet. We live our lives at the same breakneck speed and many of us are Type A people afflicted with the “Hurry, Hurry Syndrome”. Life is geared toward speed. Patience is more often seen as a handicap than a virtue. We don’t have the grace to cultivate the art of patience. Doctors however, need the patience of Job to deal with man and disease. Difficult and demanding patients can stretch our patience as thin as a gossamer thread. But we must remember that our patience has therapeutic value that may exceed that of the drugs we prescribe. Impatience is a signal that is easily picked up and then misread as callousness. Love for patients A doctor must have a huge capacity to love people, indiscriminately and sacrificially. The first commandment carved on the tablets of our heart should be, “Love thy patients as much as thyself”. Paracelcus (1493-1541) pits it this way, “then to love the sick, each and all of them, more than if my own body were at stake.” Love is a powerful medicine and knowing that you physician cares is medicine itself. Humility Humility is almost impossible to define. It is not self-belittlement or a cringing servile attitude. Nor is it a lack of ambition or a weakness of personality. Humility is essentially a true view of oneself, expressing itself in a attitude and conduct that show respect for others. I suspect that it is difficult for many of us to be humble. This is because most patients put us on pedestals and worship us. Very soon we begin to believe we are indeed omnipotent ourselves. Surreptitiously, pride creeps in and takes hold of us. Soon we begin to have a puffed-up view of ourselves. This will prevent us from seeing our own shortcomings and limitations and that can be very dangerous in medicine. These then are the qualities that make a physician good. Becoming a good physician is like running in a race that has no finish line. We will never arrive for we can always be better tomorrow than we are today.