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Brooklyn
Memoir (36)
Maria
was Russian of Jewish origin, and was exiled to US with her family when
she was in her mid 40s. She was practicing in Russia as a pediatrician.Although Maria had been a practicing pediatrician in her home country, her license did not transfer to the U.S. New credentials were needed, and so she had to go through the 3-year Residency program, and pass the Board examination to become a licensed pediatrician. Maria was struggling with the residency training because of her poor English ability and also inadequate medical knowledge. (She was an average level of pediatrician in her home country, I believe, but not at the same level of U.S. standards.)
That was why she was not treated well by other residents. I heard a senior resident say to himself when he knew he was on call with Maria; “Oh no, shit, I'm on call with Maria.” She endured those hardships with her brilliant smile. I witnessed when she once held a spotlight during the pediatric rounds.
The attending doctor asked about patient with a case of infectious mononucleosis.
He asked why they sometimes admit kids with infectious mono. She answered first; It was hepatosplenomegaly (swelling of the liver & spleen). The reason of admission was to keep them at rest to protect them from rupturing the enlarged organs. She told me later that this complication was very common in Russia and she experienced many of them. No wonder.
Frankie was an American citizen of Chinese origin. He was a medical student
rotating through our ward at that time. Although his English was very
fluent to my ear, communication skills were the biggest problem for him
as a medical student. At one on-call night with me, Frankie told me, “The
academic evaluation at U.S. medical schools depends on how well you can
do the presentation. Chinese Americans have a great disadvantage in this
field, because most of us speak Chinese at home, even second or third
generation people. It is our culture. That’s why we sometimes think the
Chinese way even when we are speaking English. This way we miss certain
nuances of the expression and perform a poor presentation.”
“Come on Frankie, forget about the nuance. Look at me," I said. "I
was alost like Helen Keller when I started my residency here two years
ago. Even every day with my communications in English,
I couldn’t speak properly or understand what they were saying.
I could see, though. And now I’m functioning very well as a resident of
family medicine. You are so privileged compared with we foreign medical
graduates. Stop thinking negatively, okay?” I replied, a little bit too
excitedly for some reason, perhaps maybe because I was jealous.
E-mail:kidot@momo.so-net.ne.jp