Everyday Fairytales: Community Medicine: Serving Humanity with Unforgettable Memories

Finally...!

I just got back from Jombang and finished two weeks-and-two-days Community Medicine Program. I am excited for being home again but at the same time I'm also feeling blue realizing this program has been over. That was fun 16 days I said, although we found out ourselves face to face with hundreds indeed thousands of tasks we had to complete.

Ah well, Community Medicine Program is a branch of medicine that is concerned with the health of the members of a community, municipality, or region. The emphasis in community medicine is on the early diagnosis of disease, the recognition of environmental and occupational hazards to good health, and the prevention of disease in the community (Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 2011). Simply, we give treatments holistically. We concern not only with the diseases, but also with the environmental toxicants in the etiology of these diseases and disease transmissions. And it's never been easy to do (and to be learned)!

Before I start explaining what I've been through in Jombang, I will gladly introduce members of team. We called ourselves as The Pulorejos, because we worked in Pulorejo Community Health Centre (not a creative name, huh?). The Pulorejos consist of above 12 players, from L to R: Yuga, Michael, Windra, Boby, Shinta, me (the petitest one!), Dani, Monica, Melisa, Nining, Ifan and Syahrir as captain. At first I was that pessimistic and afraid I couldn't make good friends with them, but apparently we made good a match. :)

First day there, we got debriefing in Jombang Health Service (Dinas Kesehatan Kabupaten Jombang).

We also researched here. We studied about epilepsy. FYI, Indonesia still doesn't have an accurate data about prevalence of epilepsy. According to The Epilepsy Annual Report we copied from Pulorejo Community Health Centre, there were only 5 patients who's diagnosed with epilepsy. This number is still falling below the number of prevalence of epilepsy that WHO published. To find out more undiagnosed cases, we invited junior high school and elementary school teachers and gave them education about epilepsy. And after that, they were inagurated as Kadepsi, Kader Epilepsi. Proud!

We looked for more patients with epilepsy through the Kadepsi. We phoned them one by one asking whether at school they've been working there's student with suspected epileptic seizures. We finally found new 10 patients! I know it's still, and still far below the WHO's, but at least we've tried. :)

That new 10 patients and their families, Kadepsi and midwives were invited to our final event: MANTEP! (Masyarakat Ngoro Tanggap Epilepsi - Community in Ngoro to be aware of Epilepsy). Alhamdulillah, it went well and we succeed. The day also witnessed the signing of MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) about the Epilepsy and its advanced program by MANTEP!'s head of committee, head of Pulorejo Community Health Centre, Coordinator of Community Medicine, Head of Pokdi Epilepsi Indonesia (The Indonesia Study Group of Epilepsy), Head of PERPEI (The Indonesian Society Against Epilepsy), representative of Kadepsi, representative of Ngoro Subdistrict, representative of Jombang Regional Hospital and representative of the Coordinating Bureau of Community Medicine (BKKM) Faculty of Medicine Airlangga University. Second proud!

Pocket Book of Epilepsy created by us!

Survey Results Presentation by Ifan Romadhon

Sharing session with patients. I totally failed turning into Oprah nor Andi F. Noya!

Expert discussions with Dr. dr. Kurnia Kusumastuti, Sp.S(K)
She's also Head of The Indonesia Study Group of Epilepsy

Signing of MOU (Memorandum of Understanding)
Standing next to dr. Kurnia was dr. Soenardi Sudartan, Sp.S,
Head of The Indonesian Society Against Epilepsy

I'd like to send my biggest thank you to Dr. Kurnia Kusumastuti, dr., Sp.S(K) for the overwhelming support that never ends. Without her full support, we'll never be able to succeed this seminar. :)

Beside the Work with Communities program, we also had others programs which had to be finished: Work wit Family and Work with Health Teams. We visited the patients at their home and analyzed holistically about the patients' diseases and the environment. Ended up having oral examinations with Dr. M. Yulianto Listiawan, dr., Sp.KK(K) and Laksmi Wulandari, dr., Sp.P(K). Thank you for coming, our two gorgeous teachers!

About the Work with Health Teams program, it's actually about our daily activities at Pulorejo Community Health Centre. I send my best greeting to Agustinus Sumarno, dr., the Head of Pulorejo Community Health Centre and staffs for the warmest welcome. :)

The farewell party in Pulorejo Community Health Centre :')

And to tante Harti, thank you for being such a kind and loving mother during our stay. She told me a lot of story about her youth, her husband and her loss. I miss sitting under the trees and listening to her stories! On my last day there, I even couldn't say goodbye, I have did try hard to hold back my tears until I gave up and got teary... 'Till we meet again tante!

To sweetest couple on earth after my parents, Subur Prajitno, dr., MS., AKK and Dr. Lilik Djuari, dr., MKes., AKK, we feel so lucky to have gotten you both as teachers! You helped us get organized, motivated, and above all, interested in learning, which is no small feat. The whole group thanks you. :)

We're thankful that there are teachers like you in our system. Keep up all the great work, docs.

Good job, I like it!

To sum up everything, I could say I had the best two weeks and two days here. I once again thank Allah for blessing me with the laughter and lovely friends, the controllable chaos of events we finally made, the joyful learning and the best teachers... All of priceless experiences I had, for sure, will not fade away and will last forever in my heart. :)