Crosscultural Doctoring. On and Off the Beaten Path
William LeMaire
Author Bio
I grew up in Belgium and went to medical school there in Louvain. My first exposure to a different culture came when I went to the formal Belgian Congo in Africa to work there in a remote area hospital for 2 years. I learned a lot. The Congo was given independence in 1960 and we ( me, my wife and by now 2 kids) had to be evacuated. We then emigrated to the USA where I became a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology. I joined the academic ranks at the University of Miami. I enjoyed it and did well.
At age 48 I had a life changing event that resulted in me retiring at the top of my academic career at age 55. I started working intermittently as an ob&gyn in different cultural settings. These included: Japan, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, Alaska, Mexico and the Caribbean. This was interspersed with extensive travel. What a blast we had. We never looked back.
I am 81 years old and have been retired from clinical practice for a few years now. I stay active and have joined the voluntary faculty at Florida International University, where I participate in the Interview process of medical school applicants.
At the insistence of many of my friends and colleagues I ended up writing a book about our very rich experiences. It was published as an e book by Smashwords and is available for free downloading at: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/161522
or from Amazon and Kindle.
Description
While the title of the book may imply that it is written for medical people, it is really meant for anyone considering a career change or early retirement and for anyone interested in some good stories. In the book you will read why I decided to leave a very successful academic career as an obstetrician and gynecologist at age 55 and started doing intermittent locus work in different countries. The plan was to work six months and play six months. You will read that it did not quite work out exactly that way, but almost. I ended up working intermittently in Japan, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, Alaska, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Making this change, while not easy at first, was the best decision my wife and I ever made and we have never looked back. You will read how we accomplished that and how we gained a tremendous amount of experience in different cultural settings.
The book is written as a series of loosely connected anecdotes, some medical, some non medical, some funny, some not so funny. When appropriate, I have added some reflections about our experiences.
I try to convey to the reader the excitement we have felt about our adventures. I hope that the book will inspire readers, medical and non-medical, to consider at some point of their careers to take the step to get off the beaten path. Anne and I certainly have never regretted our choices and have never looked back. Reading this book might also inspire people with similar experiences than ours, to write and publish their story.
One of the highlights of my medical work abroad has been the four months I volunteered at a small Catholic Hospital in Chiapas Mexico. The nuns there did an incredible job running the hospital for the impoverished Mayan population under difficult circumstances. They need all the help they can get. Thus I have decided to make this book available for free and suggest to the reader that they consider making a donation to San Carlos Hospital in Chiapas, in lieu of the customary downloading fee.
Book excerpt
When there are so many good stories, writing a short excerpt is not easy to say the least. Here it is from the beginning of chapter 3
My choice for internship was Ellis Hospital, a small hospital in Schenectady in upstate New York. What an initial culture shock that was! The first problem was the language. I knew enough “school” English to get by, or so I thought. Talking on the phone was the hardest. Initially, the nurses in the hospital thought that I was the most conscientious intern they had ever worked with. When I was on duty and the nurses called me on the phone at night, I would always go to the ward, look over the chart, see the patient and then write a note and orders, rather than just handle things over the phone like all the other interns did when called for rather minor matters. Little did the nurses realize that the reason I would get up in the middle of the night and physically go to the ward was due to the fact that I had no idea what they were talking about. I did not understand a word of what the nurses were telling or asking me on the telephone, especially not when they were using even common American abbreviations, like
PRN, QID, LMP etc. [PRN (Latin) means as needed; QID (Latin) means four times a day and LMP means last menstrual period]. That problem rapidly resolved as I began to understand more and more of the English medical terms. However, there is a major difference between understanding day-to-day common English and grasping all the idioms and sayings. A rather amusing anecdote will illustrate that.
About two months into my internship, I was on call at night when one of the nurses telephoned me in the early evening. A patient was having a bad headache and wanted something for it. I was proud that I had understood the problem over the phone and was even more proud that I managed to order something for her headache without having to walk over to the ward. An hour or so later, the same nurse called me for the same patient because she had been constipated and wanted something for it. Again I understood and again I was able to prescribe a laxative over the phone without having to go to see the patient. A while later the same nurse called to let me know that this same patient was agitated and wanted something for sleep. Once again I understood and prescribed a sleeping pill. Close to the 11pm shift change the same nurse called me once more: “Dr. LeMaire, I am so sorry to bother you again about my patient, but she is really a pain in the neck.” Immediately some horrible thought occurred to me. Here is a patient who has a bad headache, is constipated and agitated and now has a pain in her neck. These could all be symptoms of meningitis and here I have been ordering medications over the phone for a potentially serious condition. I broke out in a cold sweat and I told the nurse “I am coming.” I ran over to the ward where that patient was hospitalized, went to her room and after introducing myself said “Mrs. X, the nurse tells me that you have a pain in your neck.” The patient lodged a complaint about the nurse and me, but we both got off with a minor reprimand and in fact somewhat of a chuckle by the administrator handling the complaint.
Author Website
http://www.freewebs.com/wimsbook/