MUDr. Oľga Mikulajová – at the Research, Education, and Counseling Center of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Health Sciences (Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra) in Spišská Nová Ves, she works as an external lecturer, teaching the subjects “Human Biology” and “Gerontology” in Social Work. Among students, she makes a positive impression right in the first classes. They realize that an older person is in front of them, so they naturally expect not only theoretical facts and knowledge, but also practical experience and interesting stories from practice. Their expectations are more than fully met. Besides essential theory, which she teaches, students also talk about the “tidbits” the doctor tells them. They become accustomed to these so quickly that they later ask for them themselves. They appreciate the way she can present things in an engaging way and not stray from the topic. They value her as a person with natural authority, as a personality they respect also because of her age, and before whom they have respect. An energetic, elegant lady full of enthusiasm, she came to class with arms full of substantial books.
She never considered any occupation other than becoming a doctor. The decisive moment in her professional direction was her mother's gallbladder disease. When she saw her painful suffering and the relief after surgery, she decided to become a physician. She studied medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. She obtained attestation in internal medicine, general practice, and organization and management. As a fresh medical graduate, she started working at the hospital in Levoča. In the first three years, she worked in internal medicine, then in gynecology and surgery. Later, when a post became available in internal medicine in Levoča, she took it and stayed there for fifteen years. When her husband served as head of surgery in Nová Baňa, she worked there as a company doctor for three companies. From 1978 until retirement she worked in Spišská Nová Ves as a general practitioner for Smižany, Tomášovce, Iliašovce, and Teplička.
When she talks about her medical profession, she does not say “work” but “hobby,” which for her is a lifelong joy, and she regards this fact as her personal advantage. She would wish from the heart that everyone could have the same good fortune that she found in her profession. She greatly wanted to devote herself to surgery: “Surgery attracted me because in it there are visible immediate results: appendicitis, a gallbladder attack, a fracture... I really enjoyed it.” Love for her family, for her four children, however, was stronger than love for surgery, which is a more demanding medical discipline, and if she had wanted to dedicate herself to it fully, she would likely have had to neglect the family and home. So she gave surgery to her husband and oriented herself toward internal medicine. At the same time she adds with a laugh: “When I came to my husband’s department and saw an open abdomen, I was so fascinated that in that moment I forgot I had children at home and had to go make dinner.” “I remember my first night shift in 1963, on internal medicine. I had a young patient with high fever in delirium and I did not know what to do with her. My husband was on gynecology, so I called him. He told me: call neurology, psychiatry, and infectious disease. And I told him: I am the infectious disease doctor, I am the neurologist, I am the psychiatrist, I am the internist! What should I do?” The patient had typhus, which was already a rather uncommon disease at that time, but Dr. Mikulajová ultimately diagnosed the case correctly and prescribed appropriate treatment.
With sadness in her voice she remembers accidents and deaths of children, “... with which she still cannot come to terms. When an older person dies, especially if they were sick, then I try to comfort relatives and convince them that death was redemption for them. But children's deaths always get to me...” She also recalled a case from Spišská Nová Ves of a child whose parents had beaten him so badly years ago that he became paralyzed and blind.
She is currently in her tenth year of retirement, yet she is still in active contact with medicine—even though in the first year after retirement she “strictly refused to have anything to do with medicine.” She covered for a colleague on maternity leave, a colleague who underwent a liver transplant, and from time to time briefly covers for colleagues during holidays, mainly over the summer—in Spišská Nová Ves, Nálepkovo, Mníšek nad Hnilcom, and Levoča. She does not impose herself; offers come automatically. Although she is now doing two occupations at once—medical and teaching—she does not think about rest at all. On the contrary: “The best medicine for old age is work. When I am among people and I do what I love, I do not think about my hardships.”
She gives students quick “tick” questions
She considers the teaching profession to be extremely demanding and admirable: “Even now I cannot understand how I learned to read and write, where my teacher found so much patience to teach me. I admire teachers; I know their work is very exhausting. When you want to pass something on to a student so that they understand it, you also have to continue your education—for life.” Between medicine and teaching she sees a parallel mainly in that both are very demanding and underappreciated by society.
Although this is not her first teaching experience (during the period when her husband was in Africa, she covered for him at the secondary health school—she taught somatology, and at the Academy of Education she led three professional courses), she openly admits that when last year, at the start of the summer semester, she entered the university grounds in Spišská Nová Ves, she was worried: “I was afraid of the low level of knowledge among students. But my worries did not materialize. I start every hour by reviewing what we covered last time, and with “tick” questions I check how much they remember and then build on that. I can state responsibly that students have appropriate knowledge. There are even excellent individuals among them who are far above average.”
In Gerontology she immediately gives them basic advice on how to act when interacting with older people, based on principles of the noted Czech gerontologist and geriatrician Professor V. Pacovský.
According to her, future social workers need general medical education: “I cannot expect them to know exactly where a particular nerve passes or how many nerves there are. But I need to be sure they will never tell me that the diaphragm is a breathing organ and the lungs are a breathing muscle.” “When I see apathy and lack of interest in students, I get nervous.” Last year she was very pleasantly surprised by second-year external students in Gerontology. She marveled at their knowledge and eagerness to learn as much as possible: “They did not even want a break!” Among full-time students she notices a decrease in attention and loss of focus after the first thirty minutes. So she immediately looks for something that will re-engage them. She pulls out, for example, an interesting story from her long practice connected to the topic being discussed. On the topic of antibiotics, she told students about a Roma woman who had prescribed the antibiotic syrup Oxymykoín for all her four children and poured it onto noodles as sauce—not only because it was sweet, but because it had a beautiful pink color.
A major experience for the students was the visit to the care home in Spišská Nová Ves, which Ms. Doktor Mikulajová arranged and completed together with them. When mentioning the excursion, she speaks passionately about the modern technological equipment there that makes life easier and more pleasant for the residents.
She speaks about her students with affection even when she complains about them: “Occasionally they get on my nerves with some questions or statements, such as, for example, a doctor on television saying there is a female prostate.” To all students of the Social Work department of the University of Constantine the Philosopher in Nitra she wishes “... that they can apply in practice what they learn at school. In this way they will gain confidence, which is most important in life.” In her view, a broad field of practice opens up for social workers, especially in work with older people. The social work profession, however, must be appropriately valued by society. “A social worker should be highly objective and, within their capabilities, must provide their help to everyone who needs it and depends on it. It is a highly specialized profession.” Diagnosis via Skype?
When asked whether she also follows the principles of proper lifestyle she recommends to her patients in her office, she answers: “I try to eat rationally and maintain my weight. Sometimes I do make small transgressions, but when I can, I try to walk on foot and accept the latest findings on proper nutrition. In that spirit, I try to influence my children, who now have their own families, though now for understandable reasons I do not have as much influence on them as when they were small.”
When she mentions her family she recalls her son: “Through Skype he sends me an open mouth, and I need to identify his diagnosis and send him medicines. My husband does not agree with this, but I have already gotten used to it.”
The greatest art of old age, according to her, is the ability to accept it, think about it without fear or complaints, and come to terms with it. It is not easy, but it can be done if a person prepares for old age. And one should begin preparing already after forty. In general, the art of living, in her view, lies in a person being able to accept every age and every stage of life: “When an older person learns new things, for example working with a computer, they strongly feel their disability compared to a younger person, because for older people things naturally become harder. That should not make one discouraged or depressed, however. One must realize there are other things one has learned and can do better than any younger person, and then one has the advantage. I mean especially experience in teaching and medicine, which cannot be replaced by anything. Every lived year is a gift that never happens again.”
Thank you, Ms. Doctor, for the interview.
Authors: Mgr. Lenka Jalilah Hrušková, Katarína Tekáčová, Tímea Tóthová photo: Mgr. Lenka Jalilah Hrušková
The article was published in the journal Náš čas: HRUŠKOVÁ, Lenka Jalilah et al. 2012. The best medicine for old age is work. In Náš čas. ISSN1338-3272, 2012, vol. XVI, no. 5, p. 17.