Youngsters give the sick a healing touch

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a state where community-based palliative care has assumed the form of a strong movement, it may sound strange that palliative care is never included in the medical curriculum. But stranger still is the decision of the youngsters of  the Alappuzha Medical College to shift away from the curriculum and take it upon themselves to form a palliative care group, Karunyam, providing care and relief to patients in and around Vandanam.The inspiration came from Dr Sairu Philip, associate professor of Community Medicine Department, while the backbone of the group from the time of initiation has been Sister Shuba.“With so many community-based palliative care units in the state, it is important that the doctors become equipped to initiate and provide medical support to home care teams. The medical students should understand the relevance of such units, the problems experienced by palliative care patients in the community and the importance of communication skills in the context of palliative care,” Dr Sairu Philip said."Words spoken with love heal better than medicine,” believe these students of modern medicine. Sundays are the days of heightened activity, when they visit patients at home. It brings in a feeling of personal care and the patients feel wanted. “We try to focus on those patients who live in 5-km radius of the Medical College,” said Vipin, a third-year student.The students visiting the patients take care of their immediate needs, dress wounds, change catheters, check blood pressure and so on. Besides, they teach the care-takers how to bathe the patients,  change bedsheets without really bothering the bed-ridden patients, how to feed, how to give a sponge-bath and keep bedsores at bay.The students have even set up a drug bank for the palliative care patients. “The patients attended to by Karunya know that they will definitely have a doctor attending to them in case of an emergency. They also feel secure that they would be taken care of even if they are brought to the hospital in the dead of the night,” Sister Shuba said.