Community Medicine!

This was the reflection paper we submitted for the Department of Family Medicine regarding our first community immersion at an Aeta community in Floridablanca, Pampanga, and I just thought I had to share it on my blog. This was just a short write up because we were just given a maximum of 10 sentences to express ourselves. Now, that was a feat!

REFLECTION PAPER

(Community Immersion in Nabuclod, Floridablanca, Pampanga last July 2, 2016)

GROUP 5 JBLMRH PGIs

On a one sunny Saturday morning, we, the post-graduate interns of JBLMRH were given the chance to be exposed in an Aeta community together with the other residents and consultants of the Department of Family Medicine. The scorching and seemingly relentless heat of the sun did not stop us from seeing and reflecting on the real situation of the health care of our brethren residing in the mountains. The alarming situation with regards to the accessibility of health care among these people badly needs to be taken into account by the government and private sectors altogether.  As agents of change, we must mobilize everything in order to make the health care system become more accessible to them.

Aside from being able to sense the problem regarding their health care system, the interns were also able to experience first handedly how simple life can be, away from the technological advancements and advantages of the fast-changing and demanding world. It’s a scarcity nowadays to see people talk to each other not holding their phones on their one hand, and a rarity to see a family who collectively works hard just to get by each day, which is seemingly in pure contrary to the world where most of us want to have everything served on a silver platter. In a reality where most people seek for greater, but less superficial things, we hardly see genuine satisfaction.

That one-of-a kind community immersion we had last Saturday was something we don’t get to experience everyday in our social media-documented world.However, we realized that their simple, less colorful, and less festive world may somehow not be Instagram ready for some, but everything there cannot be more visceral, more tangible, or any less exciting than the next filtered photo on our Instagram feed.