I have a great deal of exposure to the many situations where my skills as an internal medicine doctor were put to test. The works I have done for the last years have been educating as far as my career is concerned. I have spent a year working in a small, poor rural town outside the city of Caracas, in the coasts of the Miranda State. Even though it took long before getting there, just the thought that many economically deprived and needy patients are waiting for me is enough to get me going. I would even stay there for days every week. Though it was a tiring trip, the hardships were nothing compared to the experiences I had there.
It was very fulfilling to be able to help people with their tremendous needs that trust their doctors. I have also worked for less than two years as an internal medicine resident at Guarenas-Guatire General Hospital. It was where I have seen many cases being attended to and the ER was constantly in motion. There were so many needy patients that the hospital has a record of more than 200 patients in one day. There was even a time when I had to attend to more than 80 patients in just one day. Here I have encountered the reality of the health system in Venezuela, where the majority of the population is under the poverty line.
I learned to help efficiently while making use of the minimum amount of resources. My experiences strengthened my clinical skills and my capacity to make important decisions even on the last minute. I also realized while working at the Guatire-Guarenas the transcendental importance of internal medicine when taking care of the patient and being able to diagnose the unexpected. I could not forget a malnourished patient I attended to who was suffering from diarrhea and abdominal pain. I suspected a surgical pathology, and ordered the plain abdominal x-ray.
It showed that he had an intestinal perforation secondary to polyparasitosis. I also interned for a year at the Miguel Perez Carreno Hospital, one of the biggest hospitals in Caracas and the most demanding institution to do the internship. Out of my six years of medical studies, the eight weeks spent rotating in the internal medicine department was the best schooling I have undergone. I have developed a passion for the internal medicine mainly due to my curious personality. I wanted to investigate and try out all the things that caught my attention. I wanted to provide answers to puzzles that perplex me.
Putting all the pieces together in order to see the complete picture and solving the enigma give me the highest satisfaction. I have thirst of knowledge and have found my thirst being quenched in Internal Medicine. Other than internal medicine, I have also the passion for teaching. It gives me satisfaction to be able to help others to understand something, to give answers to questions that continue to gnaw at people. In fact, I have been teaching since I was an adolescent. I started when I was 17 years old at my community church, and continued teaching during my medical career.
I spent Friday nights voluntarily talking to large groups of teens about anthropologic and theological subjects. My passion for teaching inspired me to take Theology for three years at the Universidad Catolica Santa Rosa, Caracas. I have always been interested in finding out the explanation for the things that seem to have no answer. I wanted to satisfy my curious mind, and that was through Theology. The students I was teaching came to me and asked me things that also make me ponder and contemplate. Theology and internal medicine side by side helped me to digest and explain concepts that were difficult to grasp.