The pandemic has made us – as doctors and human beings – relearn some simple, yet profound lessons. The most important ones are to take the utmost care of our own safety and never to lose hope.
By Dr. Akshay P Jadhav
We are all trying to make sense of the overall impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The structure and functioning of healthcare service providers are changing. There are newer means to embrace technology; novel ways to facilitate communication between doctors and patients; greater adoption of home-based care, especially for those living with chronic healthcare conditions.
This overhaul was long overdue. Without the fear of an unknown organism engulfing the world order, perhaps, we may not have addressed the pressing issues that we are forced to today. The price we are paying – in terms of lives and livelihoods lost – is too high, but let’s ensure that this crisis makes us stronger and ever more vigilant. How about upgrading all community healthcare centres and primary care hospitals by providing basic amenities like hand sanitisers and masks?
Lessons relearned
This ‘Covidien Era’ has made us – as doctors and human beings – relearn some of the basic lessons. The most important one is to take the utmost care to ensure our own safety and then of those around us. This has always been the mantra for all intensive or emergency care workers. While it may sound a bit ‘selfish’, from a broader perspective, when systematically practised across the globe, it can enable us to curb the spread of this dreadful virus. Self-care helps the greater good of mankind.
As doctors, we need to take care of ourselves so that we are in a position to serve more people in need while ensuring efficiency at work. We need to begin with ourselves to save as many lives as possible. In the current scenario, there have been quite a few unfortunate cases where doctors have become the unintentional carriers or spreaders of this ferociously contagious virus. Adequate self-care will help ensure that the saviours don’t turn into unintended transmitters.
The pandemic has brought our collective focus back to the basics of safety and security. It has trained us to be profoundly vigilant and vehement in our approach to work while remaining vocal about the need to adopt healthy everyday habits.
As we strive to solve this mystery, to resolve this hostile takeover, and to prepare for tougher challenges ahead, let’s not lose hope. My response to this pandemic – and I hope it is yours too – was aptly described by the Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner in 1950: “I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure… I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail.”
(The author is a Consultant Pediatrician and Pediatric Emergency Specialist at Cloudnine Hospital, Bengaluru, India).
