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Walking out of the Comfort Zone: Unlimited Potential and Possibilities
周佳霖/ Medical Laboratory Scientist
During one of my night shift, I searched on a whim for “volunteer clinic” online to find that most of results were related to Taiwan Root Medical Peace Corps (TRMPC). Clicking into their website, I found one volunteer clinic time slot aligned coincidently with my vacation days. After registering, however, I discovered that the meeting time clashed with my work shift, so I had to painfully rescind my registration.
Although I was not able to attend, the idea of volunteering for TRMPC remained in my heart. After a long period of time, I finally had the opportunity to join the 338th Gaoping Mission. As I thought about the upcoming medical mission, I realized I had to leave behind all the advanced medical equipment I was accustomed to use everyday. Inside, I was left with a lingering question, “What can I do to make a difference when I’m away from a resource-rich environment?”
On the night of departure, a time period I am very familiar with because of work, everyone in the car were amiable and friendly. While we were on the road, Sister En-En passionately shared her past experiences, giving everyone a deeper understanding of TRMPC.
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During the mission trip, which lasted for three days and two nights, we visited a different village every morning, noon, and night. At each location, we had to delegate work and set up stations for registration, medical and dental consultations, pharmacy, medical tests, accompanied reading, etc. Everyone shared an eagerness to help unload and set up the facilities. As soon as people were done setting up their assigned stations, they would immediately move on to neighboring stations and ask if any help was needed.
Under this work procedure, I witnessed an amazing cooperative team mentality among all the volunteers. What was more surprising, however, was that before the clinic was opened, the physicians would personally visit the pharmaceutical and medical examination stations to verify all the available medications and examinations, which was something I, who work in a hospital system, would never have imagined doing.
Seeing the pharmacist’s mastery over all the pharmaceutical drugs and ability to offer alternative treatments and prescriptions in response to the physician's needs, I started to seriously reflect on how I could offer different examination processes to accommodate various circumstances in my own limited and electrically dependent workstation. At this moment I realized that although my four years of schooling were not completely wasted, the knowledge I had obtained from school was not enough in an impoverished and under-resourced area.
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I still remember when I had just graduated, an older upperclassman had asked me why I had chosen to become a medical laboratory scientist (MLS). At that time, my reply was, “I wanted to help those who need help.” Those words that I had said soon became my source of motivation to continue to work in the hospital. However, under the busyness and exhaustion from work that had also seeped into my daily life, I found myself unable to determine if I had reached my initial dream to help those in need. Just when I was deep in thought, hoping that I would have the chance to help more people, TRMPC gave me this valuable opportunity.
In this short medical mission trip, I experienced a lot of shock and moments of self-reflection. Previously, I thought a medical laboratory scientist's place was inseparable from the hospital, examination institution, blood donation center, or other related institutions, because a medical laboratory scientist could only do so much for people in clinic. However, through this medical mission, my opinions completely changed. Even without the newest innovations, equipments, and reagents, medical laboratory scientists still have potential to do a lot more such as transporting limited resources and fulfilling the most basic duty as a medical laboratory scientist: providing necessary examination results in clinic.
I am very grateful to TRMPC for having these medical missions, allowing me to become more familiar with rural medicine, to get to know all the amazing volunteers, and to have a future goal to strive towards.
