Mom always finds a way to remind me to stay humble. This photo was taken on Day 2 of my trip to the homeland. At this point, I’ve been traveling for more than 30 hours (3 flights with less than 10 hours of sleep) on a bus ride to the very rural parts of Southern Vietnam to visit my grandmother.

I look around me and it hits me. These are patients traveling 7-8 hours from the country to the city to seek medical care. To my left, I see bags for a month’s worth of medications. To my right, I see a big file containing X-ray images.

Sometimes you lose hindsight of the things that matter most to you like having good health and the ones you love. Working in my current practice, I am reminded every day that you never know the battle and struggles that everyone is going through.

The snapshot of one of my bus rides in Vietnam serves as a reminder to take the best care and provide more empathy for my patients.

Since I work in a tertiary care setting, I have patients traveling anywhere from 4-6 hours and sometimes commuting from out of state. At the end of the day, the patient’s care is in my hands and I need to do my best for them.

I leave you with this quote,

“Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and feeling with the heart of the another” – Alfred Adler

Xx,
Ngan