Dr. Nguyen Huu Tung: The way to the doctor

Doctor Nguyen Huu Tung
Chairman of the Board of Directors, Phan Chau Trinh University

I was born in a village where mainly people live on agriculture: growing rice and tobacco. My family is like many other families, my parents struggle with food and books for 3 boys to go to school, and 7 sisters who work in farming with their family. Although it was difficult, when growing up, my brother dreamed of being a doctor. He said: “I like the doctor to take off the horse and walk around the village to treat the people. At that time he was in 7th grade and I was in 3rd grade at the village school. One summer afternoon, looking from the house to the street, we saw an old man on a bureaucracy, his clothes covered with rotting stools. My brother ejected his bicycle and took him down the highway, picked up the car and sent him to Da Nang General Hospital. Perhaps that image was the first one that left my memory and led me on the path of medical college when I finished my baccalaureate degree.

After passing the baccalaureate degree, I asked my parents for permission and took the car to Saigon by myself. I don't know Saigon yet, but I listen to the magnificent Saigon, the light at night. The people there were generous and generous. An active city and many opportunities for you. But when I went to Sài Gòn, I did not take the entrance exam to the Faculty of Medicine, but I entered the Agriculture and Forestry School, because the Agriculture and Forestry School had a shorter study time, was less expensive and came back to help my parents immediately to improve daily labor. . The days in Saigon were difficult to describe, always had to walk for tens of kilometers a day and always had a stomach. Homesickness, homesickness, parents and siblings very much miss.

On the last afternoon of the Agroforestry exam, I went back to a relative's inn to stay temporarily. I received a telegram: "There is a pre-medical exam in Hue, if you want to go home immediately, there is 1 application deadline in another week ”. My hometown, roommate lent me money and bought a plane ticket to Danang. And the next day, I went to Hue for the pre-medical exam, I passed 5th out of 70 candidates. The following year I passed the Hue Medical School, ranked 7th out of 56 candidates who passed that year (1972). Thus, my dream of entering medical school has been achieved. Leaving magnificent Saigon, farewell to the sad and happy memories of the days there. Today I go back to my hometown with a long dream. Hue Medical Student - I imagine when I graduated from medical school to go back to the countryside with relatives and family, help poor patients, share what I have learned, suddenly my heart is suddenly filled with feelings. description. Happiness overflowed when he saved a critical patient, a difficult disease, was praised by his relatives for a good doctor, and loved by parents, brothers, relatives and neighbors. When I think about it, my soul is immeasurably peaceful and happy.

The first day I went to Medical School, the first time on the courtyard of Hue Medical School, my heart was flabbergasted and indescribable, I felt very mature and proud. When I think of other disciplines, I see it as nothing, and my will to become a doctor keeps growing over the years.

In the first two years, students mainly come to lecture halls to study theory, my favorite subjects are anatomy, autopsy and physiology, which are the basic subjects of medicine. Teachers teach university lectures that are like lecturing in high school, students are diligently recording sentences, words can not be recorded in time, then at night borrow books from you to fill in the blanks, or gather many foreign books for reference. If you save a topic, you will fully understand what the teacher does. When you see the teacher but still do not understand, we ask the teacher to write the topic and go home to prepare, next week, we will present. It was an innovation in teaching, but few teachers would do so, only physiology teachers.

The lessons in English are available, Vietnamese are available, but most teachers prepare briefly and students find books at the library by themselves. The first years are the basic years of study, but it must be very hard to stay in the classroom or take the subject "very poor". So students study day and night. Saturday, Sunday we invite each other to coffee, but cafe to stay up to study, the siblings in 5,6 have more time, sometimes organizing dance.

The day that any medical student would look forward to is hospital admission. Because if you go to the hospital, it will be called a medical student. Our students were told to make a white Blouse to prepare for a hospital internship. The whole night before, my heart kept waiting for morning to go to the hospital, to be dressed in Blouse, to see the doctors and sisters, to see the seniors, to see the hospital environment, to see the equipment. medicine, seeing the pain of the sick person, witnessing the happiness, happiness and smile of the patient every time she heals, seeing the nurse taking the patient to take a film, taking the test, hearing the smell of sickness and especially sitting next to the sick person to ask about the situation, about family, about their sickness, and hospitalization. This is an unforgettable feeling of the life of medical students when they first come to the hospital to meet the patient and confide in them and be confided by them. It was like an initial success in conquering the patient.

Then came the time to be on duty, alternately on duty, internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics, pediatrics, emergency care, resuscitation, surgery, ... long nights staying awake with men and staring eyes when having trouble , her eyes are gentle when a serious illness comes into the emergency room, and handle it quickly, but calmly and skillfully. Seeing serious cases, the doctor is dedicated but the patient does not survive, the sad eyes are far away and the tears of "doctor" are flowing down, my heart is like heavy thinking about human life, the fate of pain. suffering, loss and family hardships, my heart ached and hard. Perhaps pictures of the patient, the image of the physician, pictures of long nights of smoking, pictures of death, pictures of a nurse alone in a recovery room full of serious patients, diligently writing patient records , writing reports at midnight, day one, day two thicken the feeling, virtue and sense of being a physician so sacred. It is a divine function, requires skill training, has a moving heart, a noble soul and a clear mind. A heart that can vibrate and compassion can understand the suffering of a human life. Therefore, it is said that before being a healer, they become human first.

In the last 2 years (years 5 and 6). I chose pediatrics because I like children, when sick children only cry and I feel crying is a language to learn in children. Thanks to the first years of good study, especially the basic subjects, as well as the subjects of pathophysiology, symptomology and methodology (analysis, logic synthesis). Therefore, I graduated from medical / pediatric school with good grades. I was immediately admitted to the pediatric department by the hospital of Quang Nam - Da Nang province, although at that time the hospital was not allowed to accept it because new graduates had to go to the provincial level to work. That day the hospital was home to me, a place of professional passion, a place to share compassion and a place to meet the loving gazes of sick children, I was always creative at work. , share work with others, learn from everyone. Soon after, the emergency department became a national hero department. But I always wonder and doubt about my capacity, why children die so much. Especially the patients transferred from the lower level, I cannot answer this question. I volunteered to go to the lower level and chose Dai Loc District to build a pediatric department for this hospital, I determined to learn from the lack of this district hospital, learn from the patient, from the staff, to do Why keep patients in the district hospital for treatment and not transfer to higher levels for diseases that we can treat well at the first level.

I have successfully built a pediatrician. Two months later, I was assigned to be the reinforcing director of Dai Loc Hospital. Two years later, Dai Loc Hospital became the leading flag of the whole province in quality hospital management when I was 31 years old. And the path of my doctor in charge of hospital also started from there. I thought, "A doctor can only save a seriously sick person at a time, but if it is a good hospital director, it can save hundreds, thousands of people at the same time".

I have not passed the professional hospital management class yet, but what I have today, arose from the difficult reality of the hospital plus the very basic learning in college, the love of the job, the passion with the profession and lovingly sharing with patients and colleagues. I can do the smallest, the biggest thing in my medical career, such as creating a national medical brand: Hoan My Medical Group, Tam Tri Medical Group and now setting up the school. Medicine with the desire to create a better image of future physicians, better quality than us in the past.

You may not be able to choose the profession you desire, but the medical profession will choose you and make you a perfect doctor - complete mind, if you have enthusiasm and compassion.