“Difficult Conversations” Posted on 26th Nov 2009, 8:00pm by admin

Difficult conversations was an event held on the second week of November, 2009 at Cana. Senior doctors, medical students/junior doctors shared on common Beginning of Life issues in the GP Clinic. The event was aimed to empower them with feeling comfortable discussing these issues with patients

Difficult conversations participants.

Dr Leonard Loh, organiser,  says, ” From personal experience, there are common difficulties faced in beginning of life issues in the clinic setting. And perhaps we are struggling to communicate alternatives and our stand to secular patients who don’t share the same beliefs as us.  There can be a cerebral disconnect eg. Church says this because of this moral principle but how do you explain this moral principle to a secular person in 5 mins?
Another example, a lady comes for the morning after pill.  Many junior doctors when starting off would say ” I can’t do it because of my belief, please go to another doctor”.

A sharing session by seniors who have been down this road and have some experience would be useful to juniors starting out. There’s good interest from the pre-clinical and clinical year med students and HOs too.  A good approach I feel will be opening the evening with a patient-doctor scenario role-played to get people realising the problems faced and thinking about them. This would be followed by a sharing by everyone on any similar personal encounters they have faced with friends or patients, and a discussion on what responses we found useful in such situations will follow.

Dr Peter Chew from aLife and Dr Gabriel Seow have kindly agreed to come share their experiences.  Dr Chew will also talk about his work at aLife as well as share about counselling skills used with ladies at aLife – for example like exploring their background, why they want the pill, have they contemplated keeping the child, knowing what abortion entails, even sharing on alternatives like adoption or avenues for support.

We may not change the minds of those determined but at least we raise awareness of other ways that they can use in the future.  But there is always the potential some ladies are unsure about their pregnancies and it will be fantastic if we learn how to engage and support them in their journey.

Sharing by Dr Peter & wife, Jennifer Chew

I guess I’m looking for ways to live our faith in the world with regards to  secular people so our ways of engaging them has to change from “right/wrong because of my faith” to finding out what they value.  And somewhere, I’m sure they’ll dovetail.  ” – Leonard.

About 25 medical students/doctors had a free-flowing conversation for 2 hours.
The students now felt much affirmed in the daily struggle of living their faith when they look after patients.  Many of them didn’t realise there were such situations they would be facing and were very reassured to know they were not alone, and there was a space to discuss their doubts. The participants were  also introduced to resources to learn more eg.  about NFP and aLife and Counselling skills
The students welcomed/wanted more sessions!