LFHC's Volunteer Profile: Dr. Judy Klevan
Sabaidee to everyone reading this blog. I'm Judy Klevan, a pediatrician from Minnesota. I've been a medical volunteer at LFHC since 2017. I've volunteered ten times, staying 4-6 weeks each time, with a more extended 3-month stay during Covid. At home, I have worked for 37 years as a hospital and outpatient pediatrician, teaching pediatrics to medical students from the University of Wisconsin.
Being a returning volunteer has been a great experience, with each time being even more rewarding than the previous! Over time, my relationships with the Lao doctors, nurses, and hospital staff have deepened, and we have become more than colleagues. Many have shared their lives outside of work and have helped me learn more about their day-to-day lives and the varied cultures in Laos. I have made lasting friendships that continue to enrich my life.
Returning to LFHC over the last seven years has given me a strong respect for the Lao doctors. I recognize the high degree of difficulty that they face every day. In the USA, we rely on multiple specialists, advanced imaging, and laboratory tests to help us with our complex patients. The Lao doctors do not have that luxury. They must often rely on their skills to treat orthopedic problems and serious cardiac, renal disease, and neurological diseases. Consultation may be available by phone but not in person. This means that Lao doctors must have a broader scope of practice than my medical colleagues in the USA. In addition, many Lao doctors practice across several languages. They may speak Hmong at home, Lao in school, and then attend medical school in China or Vietnam. At LFHC, English is taught so that the doctors can take advantage of all the learning tools published in English. Learning medicine in one language is hard, but the Lao doctors learn in several languages!
It goes without saying that after over seven years of volunteering, so much has changed at LFHC, and witnessing those changes has been one of the best things about returning. Until a few years ago, as volunteers, we supervised most patient encounters with the Lao doctors and stayed overnight in the hospital to cover the night shift. Happily, those days are gone! Many of the senior Lao doctors are independent, mature, skilled practitioners. They actively share their knowledge and train the junior doctors themselves. We are there to support them in that effort and to confer about complex patients, as we would with our medical colleagues at home.
Are they still learning? Yes, I tell them, we all are! That's what medicine is all about- always learning, always trying to take better care of patients. I hope I have inspired some of the doctors along the way.
