In a pep talk which had perspectives on life from his experience as a bureaucrat as well as some practical advice, Chief Secretary Manoj Parida on Saturday urged young MBBS students to become model physicians by combining excellence in practice with virtues of compassion towards patients.
Addressing the new MBBS batch of 150 students who are undergoing a short-duration foundation course before they move to the JIPMER campus in Karaikal in September, Mr. Parida wanted the students to become doctors who treated patients with empathy and compassion, resist pressures of commercialisation and uphold the nobility of a profession that saves lives and heals the sick.
Politeness, empathy and compassion can help the healing process in more ways than one can imagine was his message as he reminded medicos that a “good doctor treats disease whereas a great doctor treats patients”.
Recounting his own student days when after finishing college graduation in Odisha, he went to Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.
The JNU library had 19 books on diplomacy at that time (1981) which he finished reading in two months. “Back in the classroom, each time the teacher asked students if they had read this book or the other, I would raise my hand,” he said.
JIPMER Director S.C. Parija presented a souvenir to the guest speaker.
