Medicosnext
Life lessons my patients taught me
Dr. Mrinal Shrestha
She is a practicing paediatrician at KIOCH, trained at Nepal Medical College (MBBS) and KUSMS, Dhulikhel Hospital (MD Paediatrics). An animal lover who runs on coffee and suspense thrillers, she is a writer at heart and a pediatrician by passion.
I entered pediatrics with my bag of textbooks, guidelines and some years of medical training with the strong belief that gaining knowledge and clinical skills during my residency training would prepare me for every child patient I would encounter in my life. But it was at the bedside – between hesitant smiles, loud cries, brave tears and the strength in the smallest bodies where I began to understand a deeper kind of learning. My young patients became my greatest teachers, offering me lessons in courage, resilience, simplicity, joy and grace that no book had ever taught me. Here I’d like to share five of the most valuable and invaluable life lessons I learnt at the bedside, the place where children became teachers.
1. Rome wasn’t built in a day
This familiar saying holds profound meaning in pediatrics. Rome needed time, and so does rapport. Pediatrics doesn’t test patience, it teaches patience. A beautiful journey begins when a child trusts you enough to open up, and when parents place that same trust in your care. The path from the first encounter to this moment is rarely linear; it demands moving forward, stepping back and pivoting in many ways to meet each child where they’re at.
2. A little chaos can be comforting
The pediatric ward hums with running feet, loud kids, squeaky toys, chatter, spills and mess. Silence, at times, can feel ominous. Like breath becomes air, the slight chaos becomes our gentle reassurance. This becomes the gentle reminder of kids simply being kids and the warmth they spread seeping through the cold walls of the hospital. This teaches us that life isn’t about the perfect equilibrium, but about the harmonization of the many different notes to make it whole.
3. Joy in the little things
Caring for children with chronic illnesses and pain is heartbreaking, yet watching them light up over the smallest things such as a new toy, a silly face, an unfunny joke, a playful exchange, remembering their favourite colour, etc. will never not be healing. It is grounding to be reminded that little things are not so little after all, and that happiness is not a destination to reach, but a feeling we can choose, even in the hardest moments.
4. Be curious and stay curious
We often see kids with hands full of IV drips and head full of endless questions. The inquisitive little minds at unrest with questions jumping from one topic here to another topic there makes me wonder when exactly did we learn to be a little subdued. Curiosity seeks answer, answer demands reasoning, the reasoning is either derived from knowledge already discovered or from questions yet to be asked by someone brave enough to wonder, seek and find.
5. Bounce back
Witnessing preterm babies fight for their every breath, little children battling life threatening conditions and many of them emerging victorious has always felt surreal. The strength they carry, the resilience they endure through, their agility in shaky grounds of health, the courage they foster and the battle they win go far beyond medical sciences; they feel nothing short of miraculous. Even in the darkest hours, the weakest cries, the tiniest hearts and the softest hands lie unimaginable strength and perseverance and the willingness to bounce back. They remind us to do the same; to fight back in adversity, tap into the untapped strength to bounce back, to rise and to give it our all; irrespective of what the outcome might be and irrespective of what the audience might think.
