Friday, November 18, 2005
Ahhh... the sweet taste of success!
After weeks of preparation, our hardwork finally paid off. We won FIRST PRIZE in our hospital's interdepartmental case presentation contest!!!
The contest is held every year and all the different departments in our hospital are required to submit at least 1 entry each. In our department, we are always on the lookout for nice, interesting cases which we can present as our entry to the contest. We all take this contest seriously even if it is only a contest within the hospital, for after all, winning it would mean another feather to our cap. All departments are required to submit case resumes of their entries as early as September and come November, the contest proper which consists of time-limited oral presentation of the case followed by a question and answer portion is held. Each department is also required to invite their own judge who is not in any way connected to their respective departments to avoid bias. This year, our judge is a Pediatric Endocrinologist from UP-PGH. The other 3 judges all came from FEU but were trained and have their practice at different hospitals here in Metro Manila.
There were 5 contestants in all and our presentor was the last to present. The other contestants did well. I'm sure that like us, they also put so much work into their presentation (I should know, I was once in their place 3 years ago). I guess the judges were just looking for "some things" and were not satisfied. Naturally, the audience was already getting restless by the time our turn came but when the question and answer portion started, everybody was on their toes once again, our presentor answered all the judges' questions clearly and direct to the point. As soon as she left the podium, I knew already that we won (I am not just saying this because I am part of the "team") and judging from the whispers I kept hearing on our side of the contest venue, a lot of colleagues agreed with me.
We were all ecstatic when the names of the 3rd and 2nd prize winners were called and were already jumping with joy and relief when our presentor's name was announced as the first prize winner. Everyone who in any way contributed to the success of the presentation were all hugging each other. Our department chairman was grinning ear to ear, for 4 consecutive years now, our department always emerge as one of the winners.
At times like this, I am grateful that I chose to follow my heart when I made the decision where to have my residency. I tried really hard to fit in in that other prestigious training hospital but I was just not happy there. So inspite of my parents protests, I gave up my slot at the other hospital and came back to where I had my internship. I will never trade the years I spent here. Yes, we may not be the best and yes, we may not be popular but our department not only prepared me to be a good pediatrician, it also made me a better person. Here I was taught the importance of playing as a team, I found a second home and a second family here. One resident's victory is everybody's victory and one residents failure is everybody's failure.
A resident from another department asked me earlier what the occasion was because all of us in the "team" were all wearing pink, the answer is simple... our presentor was wearing pink.
Posted by nikki:: 11/18/2005 11:56:00 PM
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