How medical care changed over the years.
Will we ever get back to what we once had? Is that even desirable for modern patients?
Sometimes I do not know any more.
I spent my nursing career in public hospitals. In the early years we used to be given little books of devotion to carry in our pockets. I am sure it made our patients feel saver whether hey believed in religion or not.
That went with the nurses’ veils and caps.
It was as if the nurses wanted to modernize. They wanted to be like everyone else. They no longer wanted to be on a pedestal.
The Nurses “pledge” as it is being practiced in South Africa and some other countries today.
Hippocratic Oath (African Interpretation)
I shall forsake the needs of my patients in order to strike for more money.
I shall milk the hard earned cash from my patients to the best of my ability whether they can afford it or not.
I shall refuse treatments to patients who are too poor to afford my fees.
My personal need and wealth comes before those of my patients at all times.
I shall not be held responsible for death or suffering as a result of my treatment.
All treatments received under my care is given at the patients own risk.
My patients are, at all times, the means to my financial rewards.
The Hippocratic Oath (Modern Version)
“ I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of over treatment and therapeutic nihilism.
I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.
I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.
I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.
I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.
I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.
I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.
Hippocratic Oath (Original English Translation)
I swear by Apollo, the healer, Asclepius, Hygieia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgment, the following Oath and agreement:
To consider dear to me, as my parents, him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and, if necessary, to share my goods with him; To look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art.
I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.
I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.
But I will preserve the purity of my life and my arts.
I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art.
In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves.
All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal.
If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot.
Perhaps it is time that people in charge of governments honor workers who heal the sick so that they can feel worthy again and live up to their highest ideals.
