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11 September 2020

Kung Paano Maging Iskolar ng Bayan sa Panahon ng Pandemya

By Ron Baticulon

10 Min read

3 comments

11September

Sa mga bago at nagbabalik na Iskolar ng Bayan, isang maligayang pagdating sa UP Manila. Malamang, hindi ito ang pinangarap ninyong simula. Sa halip na selfie sa bulwagan ng kani-kaniyang kolehiyo, na kakabitan na hashtag #FirstDayInUP sa social media, kailangan ninyong magtiyaga sa screenshot. Matagal nang pinaniniwalaan na malas ang magpakuha ng larawan sa tabi ni Oble, at hindi mo ito gagawin kung gusto mong makapagtapos sa unibersidad. Ibig sabihin ba nito, bawal rin siyang hagipin sa mga screenshot ngayon? Walang nakakaalam, pero maaari naman ninyong subukan.

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6 August 2020

Kung Bakit Kailangang Magkuwento ng Manggagamot

By Ron Baticulon

4 Min read

2 comments

06August

Nitong nakaraang linggo, isang senadora ang nagpayo sa mga health care worker ng Pilipinas: pagbutihin raw namin ang aming trabaho, upang masupil ang pandemya ng COVID-19 nang hindi kinakailangang mag-lockdown muli. Inulan ng nararapat na batikos ang nasabing pahayag. Hindi ko na ito pagtutuunan ng pansin, subalit aaminin kong dahil dito ay napaisip ako:

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14 May 2020

Why Are Filipino Health Workers Dying from COVID-19?

By Ron Baticulon

7 Min read

1 comment

14May

He was training to be a cardiologist. Checkered polo shirt, short-sleeved white coat, a stethoscope around his neck, eyes on the verge of disappearing as he tilts his head to the right and breaks into a gentle smile—his photos that circulated on social media ticked all the boxes. Before pursuing this career path, he had chosen to serve for two years as a doctor to the barrio in Occidental Mindoro, and immediately one would have known that this cardiology fellow’s heart was in the right place. On March 21, the news of Dr. Israel Bactol’s death reverberated throughout the Filipino medical community, as everyone tried to make sense of what was happening, too fast, too soon. He was 34.

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20 March 2020

The Philippine Health Care System Was Never Ready for a Pandemic

By Ron Baticulon

6 Min read

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20March

Last Tuesday morning, after doing patient rounds in Philippine General Hospital (PGH), I came across two nurses from the emergency department, walking in the opposite direction towards the hospital. It was the first workday after President Rodrigo Duterte put Luzon on enhanced community quarantine, in an effort to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

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12 July 2019

The Neurosurgeon and the Writer

By Ron Baticulon

7 Min read

5 comments

12July

In 2019, I became a fellow of the 58th University of the Philippines National Writers Workshop. To apply for the workshop, I had to submit an essay explaining who I am, what I write, and why I write. This was my poetics essay.

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17 October 2018

Anim na Kuwentong Med School

By Ron Baticulon

11 Min read

2 comments

17October

Noong 2016, matapos kong ipasa ang manuscript ng aking libro sa unang publishing house na sinubukan kong pagpasahan, hiningan ako ng mga kuwentong katatawanan mula sa med school upang mabalanse ang mga mabibigat na istorya mula sa residency training. Heto ang anim na kuwentong nahalungkat ko mula sa blog ko noong ako ay medical student pa. Wala ito sa librong ilalabas ng U.P. Press sa susunod na taon. Ito ay para sa lahat ng med student na kasalukuyang nahihirapan subalit patuloy na umaasa at hindi sumusuko sa laban.

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7 October 2018

What a Palanca Means to This Doctor

By Ron Baticulon

15 Min read

32 comments

07October

Every year, when the winners of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature are announced, you always read about first-time awardees who succeed on their first attempt, and in a major category at that. This isn’t one of those stories.

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22 June 2017

The Disillusioned Medical Student

By Ron Baticulon

7 Min read

66 comments

22June

I struggled during my first two years of medical school in the University of the Philippines (UP). This I can say only in retrospect, not because of a lack of awareness at that time, but more so because I refused to acknowledge how I felt. I thought I was OK. I wanted to believe I was OK. Many years later, as a doctor and teacher at the same medical school, I can say I wasn’t.

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