| Did medicine men wear scrubs? Of course, they did | | | | PILLS INSTEAD OF DRILLS |
| not. However, the essence of the doctor's goal-to | | | | While today's doctors avoid using drills to alleviate |
| cure his or her patient, was the same. Throughout | | | | headaches, their objective of curing patients has not |
| human history, doctors have had different roles and | | | | ceased. From headaches to backaches, doctors strive |
| used different treatments. While the earliest doctors | | | | to discover what ails their patients, and then provide |
| lacked the breadth of knowledge that today's | | | | a cure. However, the field of preventative medicine |
| doctors possess, their mission was to make ill or | | | | has become increasingly popular lately. It is based on |
| injured people well again. | | | | the premise that the healthier you are, the less likely |
| THE DOCTORS BEFORE WRITING | | | | you are to become sick. |
| The Stone Age included the first "doctors." Okay, we | | | | Researchers have learned that indeed, the ancient |
| should use the term "doctors" loosely. The doctors | | | | adage that "cleanliness is next to godliness," is true. |
| were actually medicine men known as "shamans," | | | | Cleanliness is particularly important in hospitals, where |
| who practiced a very primitive form of medicine. | | | | bacteria can counter medical personnel's struggle to |
| Instead of going to medical school, as today's | | | | cure patients. Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus |
| physicians do, the shamans learned their trade | | | | aureus, also known as MRSA and the "superbug," is |
| through different ways. No written language and | | | | the most common bacteria in hospitals. When this |
| medical textbooks existed then. Instead, shamans | | | | bacteria enters a patient, it could result in a "staph |
| had to use spoken language and demonstrations to | | | | infection." Doctors could simply use antibiotics, right? |
| teach their trade to apprentices. | | | | The problem is that MRSA is resistant to many types |
| SENSE AND SPIRITS | | | | of antibiotics, making it very challenging to treat. |
| Perceived as gods, these shamans combined logic | | | | The key is to prevent MRSA from spreading. |
| and religion. Obviously, they did not use the advanced | | | | "Scrubs," the loose-fitting clothing that surgical |
| techniques that today's doctors and surgeons in | | | | personnel often wear, are extremely hygienic, making |
| cheap landau scrubs use. However, they did create | | | | them effective in preventing the transmission of |
| medicines from various plants, and used clay to set | | | | bacteria, including the superbug. In fact, personnel in |
| their patients' broken bones. | | | | various other patient care departments, also wear |
| Still, when the shamans could not comprehend a | | | | scrubs today. |
| particular sickness, they would practice certain | | | | While the first doctors had little knowledge about |
| religious ceremonies. For instance, to alleviate their | | | | science, like today's physicians, their ultimate goal was |
| patients' headaches, the shamans would drill holes in | | | | to cure their patients. Today, doctors use every |
| their patients' skulls. Today, we realize that this action | | | | strategy available, to prevent and kill illnesses. For |
| would create an even bigger headache. However, the | | | | instance, they strive to keep certain microbes from |
| shaman believed that the drilled holes would allow evil | | | | spreading in hospitals. In particular, scrubs provide a |
| spirits to escape from his patient's head. | | | | new way to keep an old bug away! |