competence and not claims a claim is
something that said so usually without
any evidence
well competence is the ability to do
something successfully and efficiently
personally I take this to mean that you
should aim to do your job
competently rather than claim or argue
do it well people tend to say let my
work speak for itself and that in its
entirety is what I take Anthony to mean
so that’s what I’m here to talk to you
about today competence competence
not only key to a long fulfilling life
but it’s key in any profession
competence can be the difference between
mediocrity and excellence the difference
between professionalism and ignorance
the difference even between life and
death the difference between and a life
spent in poor health it’s quite easy to
see Oh
crucial competence is to the well-being
of mankind now the matter in question
came about to me through my ambition
which is medicine a field where
competence could be the factor that
holds a life at its precipice that tips
the scale when fighting the battle
between life and death now I’ve got a
story to help you understand what I’m
trying to say so this is me when I was 3
years old and of course it wouldn’t be
reasonable for me to say that I had
thoughts about competence in medicine at
such a young age but this particular
memory left its mark on me in more than
one way and you soon see why so one day
I was rushed to the accident and
emergency units because I was bleeding
quite severely due to a laceration on my
head
more specifically my right eyebrow was
split open see the actual lead-up to
that event is still a blurry commotion
of images I was three
but according to my parents I was a very
clumsy child I tripped and I went
face-first into the ledge of my bedroom
door but according to my three-year-old
self the door attacked me so believe
what you will after such a experience
you’d think that nothing could be more
dumbfounding but yet again I was proven
wrong because I was made to sit in the
ER for over two hours without any pain
medication because the doctor on call
wasn’t present at the ward and I
remember during my fits of tears that
seemed endless at the time thinking how
could this happen how could someone even
allow this to happen and as you can
imagine the year was filled with many
other cases that needed immediate
attention but what did they get a whole
load of incompetence with no doctors on
the side yes it was a mess and what made
it even worse was the fact that I came
from a long line of doctors to our GPS
and one is a double consultant so I had
the privilege of observing what the
ideal doctor-patient relationship was
which was with mutual respect and the
highest standard of care and decorum not
only expressed by the doctor but every
individual in his or hers effectively
working team but that obviously wasn’t
the case in my story the doctor
eventually made his appearance and he
stood up my eyebrow I didn’t have an
eyebrow for months so you can imagine
the jokes and as most of my friends know
I can’t raise an eyebrow having to so
trying to raise one with one well that
was an interesting experience so now all
I have to show for that bad memory was a
gap in between my eyebrow looking back
at that experience it was crystal clear
even to my three-year-old self that
patients didn’t deserve to be treated
the way that I was and from that day
forth my interest in medicine gradually
heightened especially in terms of
doctor/patient relationships I felt that
they that day was a great injustice
these people these people who were in
severe pain had minimum care I still
care I still care that that age as well
that these people could have been
relieved of their pain at a much earlier
date if more doctors were signed to that
would or the doctor who was supposed to
be there was so I realized to stop this
reality from reoccurring we cannot
tolerate this incompetence this lack of
standards and care while all of this is
very important
it’s also quite obvious I mean if a
three-year-old can figure out that
there’s something lacking in the ER
apart from the doctor it’s safe to say
that it doesn’t take a genius to figure
out how crucial competence is now
keeping that in mind I’d like to direct
you to another form of competence one
that is personal but still related to
health care and well-being do you ever
think about your health if you do if you
think about your lifestyle your habits
your diet chances are you’re taking care
of yourself competently competence is
crucial especially in medicine and I
can’t stress how important it is let’s
imagine two people one who chooses to
take care of themselves and does it well
and one who doesn’t really care for
themselves physically you can compare
and contrast the qualities of life
before I leave I want to know that I’m
leaving you convinced so I wanted to
introduce you to someone who I met
during my work experience placement in
December of 2015 I hope that this story
reiterates the fragility of life and
makes you take your health more
seriously as well as keeping in mind
competence so during the last day of my
work experience placement I was assigned
to the renal care unit also known as the
dialysis unit it’s for people who are
not comfortable or knowledgeable about
the medical term it’s to do with
patients who have forms of kidney
failure
so I observed two types of patients one
who rejected the kidney transplant and
ones who were at a stage where the
kidney transplant would not be
beneficial to them at all due to
confidentiality reasons
I can’t reveal the patients name so for
name sake let’s call him Arthur Arthur
was an 85 year old man who had been
attending this hospital for over a
decade for renal care and that’s because
both of his kidneys were failing and
without getting into specifics the
treatment and tells a machine that
access your kidneys and it’s attached to
the body via internal and external tubes
it’s a four-hour process where the
monitor monitors your blood level but
oxygenation levels as well as the whole
dialysis it’s a four-hour process I sat
next to him with his staff and he told
me how his cost of living had severely
depleted due to the fact that the
treatment itself is costly the hospital
had given him a grant but that surely
depleted after a while and now he’s
having to pay out of his own pocket so
he barely has enough money to afford the
basic necessities of life and the staff
told me how being bedridden and cold and
fragile had made him look regretful and
I know that not all of our medical
issues arise from our decisions and
actions but most of them do and what did
the doctors have to say about that well
they told me to stay strong to stay
passionate and most importantly when the
time comes as it inevitably inevitably
will fight death to the door at the end
of my conversation with Arthur he wished
me the best of luck and he smiled and
that was a defining moment for me the
fact that this man who’s been through so
much suffering had the strength to smile
life is so fleeting yet so many of us
take it for granted just because we
choose to take care of ourselves
incompetently competence does not apply
just to our professions it applies to
all aspects of our lives it affects our
everyday life and everyone around us in
the medical perspective this is how I
see it someone who is ill is someone’s
mother father brother sister son
daughter a friend were all
interconnected and it’s high time
that we took advantage of this highly
developing medical world and made our
health our priority health professionals
roles are to take care of the human race
but we need to prioritize our health too
it is your duty not only to yourself but
to everyone else around you today be the
vessel of that change start the domino
effect and the rest of the world will
follow
life is short as it is don’t shorten it
even further because of your own
incompetence thank you
[Applause] [Music]