Browsing on Twitter came across this post. The issue is close to heart because it tackles on the perception of work life balance in the healthcare services here.
I was left flabbergasted after finding out that a number of medical interns/clerks abandoned their duty post to watch The Eras Tour. If you think it’s justifiable then maybe a career in medicine is not for you.
I'm not really one to take the drama at face value so a little comment reading shows a different perspective from those within the healthcare services and those that aren't.
I don't think "Abandoned their duty post to watch the Era's Tour" the right term if the backstory includes the interns filing for leave prior. Using the term abandoned implies they were supposed to be showing up on their posts as scheduled but decided to go to the concert instead. This is a no no when doing clinical rotations as a post medical intern.
But a few follow up tweets revealed that the interns applied for those leaves in advance and these were accepted. This isn't abandoning their duty, it was a scheduled leave. In terms of the reasons for those said leaves, I don't know the institution or what was said in their orientation when they applied for internship in the hospital but these policies can differ from one institution to the next.
From my own experience when I was a post-grad intern, we get to apply leaves for being sick, death of an immediate family member, and other case to case situations that the coordinator finds reasonable. The leaves aren't even considered paid since an intern is under the training department and not a contractual employee of the hospital and they are under the CHED. One could just do extra duties equivalent to those leaves to comply with the requirements of fulfilling an entire year of internship. That's my own experience anyway.
The problem here is what was stated in the application for leave. If the intern said they were going to the Era's Tour and it got accepted, then the person who made the tweet has no business what those interns do with their time. But if their institution has specific policies that says leaves shouldn't be used in this way AND the intern made a different excuse, then that's really being dishonest.
We can think of the work environment as toxic because people need to lie to get their leaves approved but that's really something the institution has control over. But to lie in your leave application is still dishonesty. There's a lot of context missing in this issue but people are losing their shit assuming a lot of things. Using the term like "abandoned" is a strong word and a lot of confusion might have been prevented with a little more context.
The missing pieces to this issue is what was said during the orientation for these interns when they started their exposure in the hospital especially with the use of leave credits. Even if this doesn't involved any concerts, lying in the leave application isn't something one should do since this is still an official record. What did the HR department or clinical coordinator for interns say during orientation and what was signed on their contract clarifies things up. But I doubt we'll get some of that disclosed online. If you want to look up Association of Philippine Medical Colleges, this organization sets the guidelines for medical internship training.
One thing I noticed at the comment section is treating interns as employees, they're still under CHED and don't have the benefits of employees like paid leaves. I'm not sure if people got this distinction clear but it's one tell that the one commenting may not be from the healthcare service sector.
Some issues about work life balance in healthcare popped up in the comment section and I agree, from medschool to becoming a registered physician, residency training and beyond, a lot of the working conditions are toxic like you wouldn't see this level of grind from other professions. Imagine working on the hospital on-duty for 24 hours straight and then after that shift ends, you still need to be present for another 8 hours, but work doesn't really end after 8 hours, so you render more or less around 36 hours straight. The workload will depend on the nature of your specialty and area on the hospital but this is lifestyle interns to medical residents usually have to live, which is why achieving work life balance involves moving on. This lifestyle helped me stay awake for 36 hours bare minimum like it's just a walk in the park.
My own bias when it comes to work life balance living as a doctor, the less toxicity you want to pursue, the less people you can help. It's an exhausting career especially those who live true to a noble lifestyle about giving service to others. There's a lot of doctors needed in the rural areas but most are found within the city because the pay is either good or out of convenience even when it's people in far flung areas that need help the most. A lot of physicians are undercompensated and the pay isn't even equal in private and public hospitals.
A lot of doctors don't go into specialized field of training because why do that when they are already earning well just from moonlighting.
But what do I know? I'm just a shitposter online sharing an opinion.
Thanks for your time.
Haters gonna hate.
On a serious note, how do institutions over there handle “unexcused” absences?
Just my own experience, unexcused absences for interns could just mean extended duties. They are still classified as students and not treated as employees. They have yet to pass the board exam to get a license. Twitter post reactions there have overreacting comments thinking interns are paid employees, it's like student allowances.
Lol I didn’t get paid anything as an intern. I did 6 months of free labor.
I'm not sure if it's a similar program. The process here is like:
4 years of medschool, on the 4th year, we become a clinical clerk / intern then spend most days on clinical rotation with a base hospital before graduating for a diploma.
Then we apply for Post Graduate Internship exposure for 1 year with a hospital that allows training for PGI, after getting a certificate we completed the exposure for a year, we can then apply to take the board licensure exam. During those times, our status are still students or under the training department, not contractual employees.
So it's a bit confusing to read when they mentioned the term interns, they didn't specify if these were still studying med-school students or post graduate interns. I say just let the students have their fun and misdemeanor, being a PGI is the line where one can have the most fun as a student while taking on real world responsibilities without the harsh consequences.
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It is a fact that if we don't have our routine in life and never go to sleep and wake up and do not work on time then it will affect our health very much so it is better that every Work should be done on time and getting enough sleep is very important.
Sometimes Often you say the comments that are far off topic from what I actually wanted to highlight in the post. I appreciate the effort to comment but if I have to get notifications for comments that went in tangent from what I actually posted, it's better just to not bother doing so. This isn't the first time I read your comments that hints you haven't read the post or at least give the impression you missed the point of the post. I'm not trying to be rude but I am annoyed at this form of engagement.
I try my best to write a good comment and next time I will be more careful.
Their is a lot of money in Healthcare. The only issue is that the money is not going to the right people and the medicine is being help up.
Doctors, nurses, Virtually all hospital staff have insane shifts. All these interns, why not just make them regulars and have proper rotational shifts.
The money is there, public support as well. The only issue is that hospitals want to earn as much money as possible, one of those are following philhealth guidelines to become eligible for government handouts *(I.E FREE MONEY).
Hearing all the BS my sister had to deal with. So much rules and bureaucracy to treat a patient that's dying in front of you.
RIP Hopefully you become a big boy Doctor with your own hopital funded by crypto.
Goodluck @adamada !