The Filipina Doctor: Coming Full Circle
Centuries ago, the babaylan served as seer and sage, healer and community “miracle-worker.” They held an important and influential role in pre-Christian Filipino society as the primary mediator between the spirit world and the human world. While the role of a babaylan was open to both male and female, most babaylans from the pre-Hispanic era were female. These women healers were both revered and well-respected, and their value to their community well-recognized.
Today, after a long and arduous struggle, Filipino women in medicine have finally come into their own. Like their babaylan counterparts, the Filipina doctor has once more reclaimed her role in modern Filipino society both as healer and a force to be reckoned with.
International Quirkyalone Day!
Uncompromising romantic singletons of the world, celebrate! February 14 isn’t just for the coupled up anymore. Today, aside from being Valentine’s Day, is also International Quirkyalone Day.
New POEA Policy on Direct Hiring – How Will This Affect Us?
(I wrote this post in my Multiply site and cross-posted to my Blogger site in the hopes of reaching more readers. This is a problem that does not only apply to doctors who wish to work abroad, but any other OFW who obtains his job through direct hiring. Please let people know about this new ruling – especially your friends and relatives who will be the most affected by it. You may sign a petition for its abolition over here if you agree with me.)
I posted this message on the Pinoy MD forum last night, in the hopes that more fellow doctors will be made aware of this new policy on Direct Hiring. I know that most of my contacts and most of those in my extended network are young doctors like myself, who are considering going overseas for training and employment opportunities.
As doctors, most of us who seek work abroad do not go through recruitment agencies but rather apply on our own and are hired directly by hospitals we are matched to in the US or are accepted into (in other countries). Since I see no provisos in the copy of the memorandum (you can get to read the full document over here) for doctors or other professionals, this will definitely affect our own bids to leave the country through direct hiring. This will be particularly problematic for colleagues who have been given H1b visas to the US. The rest of us who are to be sponsored on temporary employment visa will be greatly affected as well.
How it will ultimately affect us (and our chances for being matched and hired by hospitals abroad), I don’t know. But its effects will likely be detrimental rather than benificial given the recent economic slowdown and the fierce atmosphere of competition in the world at large. The POEA has just given foreign hospitals one more good reason not to hire Filipino.
Dreams for Sale
I was at Starbucks yesterday as part of my pathetic attempts to get started at studying, and, as part of my procrastination strategy, browsed through yesterdays papers. One header in particular leapt out at me from the middle of the Inquirer’s opinion pages. It’s a commentary by Juan Morales called, “Wedding Rings for Visas” and it explores another facet of the great Filipino Diaspora – that phenomenon of marrying to migrate.
The Worst Patients Ever
Doctors make the worst patients imaginable.
After several months of being told I should start myself on Metformin for my Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), I finally caved and took my first pill this morning.
To be fair to me, I did try to take Metformin the first time my OB-Gyn friend (take note that this was not part of a formal consult) told me it would be a good idea, but I had the most horrendous bout of GI upset after only taking 1 pill… and I swore off the drug completely, advice from my Endocrinology and other OB-Gyn friends notwithstanding. All this despite the fact that I already knew I was a textbook case of PCOS and had the ultrasound to prove it. You’d also think that since we have a very strong history of diabetes and high cholesterol in my family, I wold be more cautious. Not so. As a matter o fact, I also threw the advice about diet modification, exercise, and weight loss out the window.
When doctors get sick, it’s not a matter of not knowing any better. I think it’s part of our medical education to live in some form of denial when it comes to our own bodies.
