By Dr. Rosalin Hansda

I am a general physician. I belong from Balasore, Odisha, eastern India. Presently I live in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, which is located on banks of Teesta River on foot hills of Himalaya.

I work in Bishop James Memorial Rural Healthcare Centre, Jalpaiguri. This is owned and managed by Daughters of Vincent De Paul, an international religious congregation. We have outpatient department and in patient department with all the laboratory facility and pharmacy. We get around 70 percent patients from underserved areas of nearby districts.

When planning my clinical practice it was important for me that I find a good place where I can improve my practical skills and develop good relationship with patients and get support of attending physicians who are excited and willing to teach and share their experience. As per God’s will I was destined to be here in Bishop James Hospital, where my hospital administer, my senior doctor have always supported me and helped me to grow. Without them I wouldn’t be the person that I am today.

I completed my studies abroad in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; growing up in urban area, I always was interested in practising in rural areas; working here I have learnt many things especially to be a jack of all trades.

Working in rural area is to be prepared for a tight-knit culture but the best part is you get to build a unique relationship with your patient, where he or she trusts you more than his or her family.

Working for the underserved people here feels like a privileged person. Practising in a rural setup demands high quality care effortlessly, it requires physician’s sacrifice, certain big city amenities both professionally and socially but trust me the payoff is worth it. There are lot of challenges to rural medicine, including a different face of poverty compared with metropolitan areas.

Here people come to hospital in their terminal stages they suffer from multiple diseases but their first priority is to receive any folk remedy available and if it is not effective then they approach a physician.

We get all kind of patients here starting from a simple cold fever to the end stage renal failure. We have to be always prepared for an unexpected case because it is said that “A PATIENT’S UNMET NEED IS ALWAYS EQUAL TO DOCTOR’S EDUCATIONAL NEED.”

Being a part of this hospital, I have learnt to handle all the patients with full confidence and to give hope to the patients that whatever happens we can always overcome, because I believe God never leaves us alone with our problems He has provided us with enough strength to fight it.

The nature friendly environment here far away from a loud city life works wonders; it helps patients to heal better and faster. And even I feel, such a calm and beautiful environment keeps the physician and staff stress free.

I personally would encourage all the new medical aspirants to spend some of their professional period in rural setup, as you get an opportunity to work in all aspects of medicine and you are exposed to large number of interesting cases.

Coming back home tired but with a satisfactory feeling after diagnosing a difficult case and seeing the people recover with your treatment is worth all the pain and effort. After all if God has given us a chance by any means to serve a person, it is our duty to use our knowledge to reduce our neighbour’s problems.

I am lucky and grateful that Lord Jesus and my parents and younger sister who have always been there for me in all my ups and downs holding me so close to them that I never shattered down.

I dedicate my time, effort and ability to my work and will always keep working for the needy ones. May God bless you all. Praise the Lord.