Urgent Advice Needed.

[Jangal Da]

Dear Rimmel,

I do not think there is any organisation specifically representing Sikh medics. As I said earlier, I personally used to remove my kara for theatre work and pocket it in the scrubs. However I agree that it poses no infection risk and that under the gown after appropriate scrubbing it should be okay.

Have you discussed this with the surgeon? That would be my first port of call and get him/her to sign you off instead of some ignorant scrub nurse. Secondly inform the medical school director of undergraduate education for that Trust that you feel that you were treated unfairly due to a lack of knowledge of what a kara means to a Sikh and that this needs to be brought to the attention of the theatre staff as it is a good training point in diversity (NHS buzz-word).

I am sure you will get signed off (competancy based training - what a pain in the *&&).

ps Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that there are very few Sikh doctors -all levels, I mean from med students to consultants and GPs.

pps An interesting saki from a Gyani that I was told soon after qualifying:

In the days of Dasmesh Pita Guru Gobind Singh, a doctor who was a devout Sikh lived just outside Anandpur Sahib. One day Guru Gobind Singh visited him, as he heard that he was an honest and truthful man, firm in his faith. On departing Guru Gobind Singh asked him that if a farman (instruction) was delivered for the doctor to attend the Guru's durbar, would the doctor come at once. Without hesitation or thought, the doctor replied, "yes my King, I'd be there straight away."

One day a horseman arrived at the doctor's house. He was a Singh of the Guru's guard. He dimounted and read out a farman that the doctor was required to attend Guru's durbar at once. However the doctor was not at home. He was in a nearby house seeing a patient that he daily attended to. The doctor's servant came running to find him and told him that he must leave straight away. The doctor replied that he could not as he was with a sick patient and would come as soon as he was done. The servant persisted on petitioning his master, but the doctor told him to wait with the messenger and he would come when he was done.

When the doctor was finished he made his way back to his house, where a very annoyed messenger was awaiting him. The doctor got on the back of the messenger's horse and they rode off to the fort where Guruji had his durbar.

At the durbar the doctor was led towards the Guru and as he approached the King of Kings, the messenger out of fustration 'helped' him along by giving him a hard push on the back, almost making the doctor stumble before the Guru. When the doctor came near Guru Gobind Singh, he bowed down and they exchanged Fatehs. The messenger sat at some distance, still fuming that the doctor dared to be late for the Guru.

Guru Gobind Singh said to the doctor that he had taken his time getting here. The doctor simply apologised and kept silent. The Guru then reminded him of his promise and asked why he had broken it. The doctor told the Guru that he was at a patient's house when the order had arrived and the man he attended to was very sick and needed his attention. He calmly replied that he acknowledged that he had broken his duty of faith by not coming straight away, but pleaded that he had other duties to. The messenger was listening some distance away and this time could not contain himself. He barked that there was no duty greater than that of attending towards the Guru! Before the doctor could retort, Guru Gobind Singh spoke up and replied back to the messenger, "do you not think that by him healing a patient dillegently and not neglecting that seva which is his calling, he is thus not healing me?" This shut the messenger up.

Guru Gobind Singh embraced the doctor and said that he was a true Sikh of the Guru, as he put the worthy ethics of a physician unto his patient, before the maya of being a big-shot or egoist who would walk away from those in need simply to look good infront of the Guru.

[rimmel]

I got my scrub assessment signed off, was so worried. Also this is shocking...I spoke to quite a few Sikhs at uni and they just take their kara off but I just could never do that....unless there was a real risk. Also Jangal Dal your story reminds me of how there was a devotee of the Guru who was walking along with his cattle. He passed the Gurdwara and really wanted to get the Guru's darshan but his cattle was with him. He then decided he would quickly go into the gurdwara whilst his cattle went ahead and afterwards he would catch up with them.

In the darbar he was eager to get his parshaad and leave. The person serving parshaad was informed of this and instead of giving him parshaad he ignored him. This carried on for a while and by now the man was concerned about where his cattle had reached and so he asked if he could have parshaad quickly. Instead of acknowledging his concerns the person serving started giving it to those who had come after him and decides to say to him 'emi bandar vang nachi jandya' ie why are u jumping around like a monkey....

My memory goes hazy now but later on the man serving parshaad is re-incarnated as a monkey. This goes to show what we see may not always be the case. However in relation to this kara stuff I like your story cos patients are always first but that doesn't mean I should just say i'll remove my kara when there is no real risk...or at least they should sort out the unfairness with the wedding ring issue. Anyways I'm happy I got my form done - also I never had any issues when I scrubbed up with the Reg or SHO so I reckon the team are okay with it. In this case I will erase the nasty comments of the scrub nurse from my memory!

PS - yea I think ure right as I have not seen a qualified Sikh doctor yet either! Actually its kinda weird since the stereotypical view is that all asians want to become 'doctors or lawyers'.

Actually the only Sikh person I met was the bed manager who had cut hair but she was so happy to see me. She told me how she recognised me from far away cos I wear a keskhi....we had a long in depth convo about how she wished she kept her hair too but how hard it is etc. It was kinda cool as it had the few odd punjabi words thrown in!! Oh and during ward round this random patient said kidhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa to me whilst the Reg was asking him questions...it was so beautiful lol....I love being me and most of all I love being a doctor....gonna go study now. Also thanks for the advice - I think I will speak to someone after my exams.

[Wicked Warrior]

When I started working, I wore my kara pretty much all the time. Didn't take it off unless scrubbing in theatre or having to attend a patient in a sideroom/closed bay. Used to wear two - one of steel and one of silver.

TBH it got to the point where it was becoming more and more difficult to take the kara off so I took it off once, asked Maharaj for forgiveness. Don't wear it any more but will hopefully one day take amrit and be able to wear it all the time. But no one ever said to me anything about it other than asking about what it was.

I still wear my watch and no one says anything but again take it off as and when I need.

As for patients, not only do some of them recognise me as Sikh but some of the older men have served in India during the war and were stationed there alongside Sikh soldiers. They still remember a lot of Punjabi and it's quite scary how much they know.