A Published Article, Thank You Lord!

Having my first scholarly article published in vol. 44 no. 3 2010 issue of a reputable journal is a good way to cap my month before entering Christmas week.

Finally, the result of years of hard work is found in page 24 of Acta Medica Philippina Vol. 44 No. 3 which just came out early December 2010 I think.

The article is on Abbreviation Usage Practices in Patient Chart Records and Doctors' Orders.

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank my all UP-NTTC HP teachers, my MHPEd classmates, my family, my friends in the UP College of Public Health, my colleagues and mentors in Cebu Institute of Medicine, the Records section staff of VSMMC and CVGH as well as Dr. G. Aquino and Dr. Poblete of VSMMC and CVGH respectively.

This article, like the thesis manuscript that preceded it, is dedicated to one of my MHPEd classmates who was also my teacher in CIM and Velez College, Dr. Mario Sanchez, who passed away years ago before finishing the MHPEd program. Dr. Sanchez may be gone, but he is not forgotten.

Of course, all thanks and praise go to God Almighty. After a stressful first few weeks of December, (my wife had surgery, thieves broke into the house, destroyed our barbed wire and stole several meters of electricity cable), He gave me this blessing in the form of a published journal article.
 
I did not even think my work will be published.

I had doubts if I could even finish data collection since I was doing it at the same time I was attending classes for my MS Public Health training.

Then the paper was finished and the work was presented as a poster in the Association of Philippine Medical Colleges. Then came the time that it was accepted as a poster in the 7th Asia Pacific Medical Education Conference in Singapore. And then, this.

I had plenty of encouragement from my UP mentors, Dr, Jose Alvin Mojica, Dean Erlyn Sana and my other NTTC teachers.

Dr. Marian Denopol of VSMMC was also very helpful and I thank her for that.

I just hope that my research teachers during medical school will also be happy for me.

And I hope that Physical Diagnosis teachers and the medical community will take a look at this study and consider the recommendations of standardization of abbreviations as well as the formal teaching of ""Responsible Abbreviation Usage".

I hope this will serve as an inspiration for my students to do research with an intention also to publish in a journal.

For what is a research work for, when the results are not made known to stakeholders who may have good use for the information gained.

As Dr. Vicente Belizario Jr., UP-NIH Deputy Director for Research Management and Development and my Parasitology professor said to me, "If the results of the work are not intended to be published, then the work should not be done at all. "