What is a "barefoot doctor"?

Barefoot doctors are informal doctors in villages who are not included in the national establishment. To put it plainly, villagers call those barefoot doctors who work in the fields barefoot.

China's liberation to the end of the eighties, most of the villages have barefoot doctors. In those days, the country was poor, there was a shortage of medical specialists, and it was not possible to train so many doctors with medical specialties, so they had to train a group of barefoot doctors who knew a little bit about medicine to meet emergency needs. In the poor and backward age, the sick people are also especially many, more need to barefoot doctor's treatment glass, therefore, in that era, in the countryside, barefoot doctor came into being.

In the countryside, the selection of barefoot doctors is generally based on the following two conditions. One is selected from the medical family, the second is from the high school graduates who know a little about medical pathology in the picking out of the vertigo, centralized to the county health school training for a year and a half, and then returned to the countryside is considered to be a barefoot doctor.

Barefoot doctors in the countryside, because they have not received systematic study, medicine, pathology and other knowledge is relatively low, big and serious diseases can not be cured, the complexity of the disease, not to mention. Barefoot doctors can solve the problem, usually some headaches and body heat, abrasions and trauma and other small diseases. Although it is a small disease, but can be managed to solve, but also greatly convenient for the villagers. First, they don't have time to go to the big hospitals to see a doctor, two is to the big hospitals to see a doctor transportation is also very inconvenient, three is to the big hospitals to see a doctor high cost. As a result, the villagers respect the barefoot doctors very much, and consider them to be the village intellectuals and life-savers.

In fact, being a barefoot doctor in the countryside is very hard and not an easy task. First of all, there is no fixed salary for a barefoot doctor, some just get some monthly subsidies from the brigade, and some just get paid in lieu of work credits by the production team.

The meager subsidies and work credits could not solve their problems, so they had to work barefoot in the daytime and study medicine at night. Secondly, due to poverty and backwardness, medical equipment is very simple. In addition to a medicine box, a few ordinary tablets, a syringe, a few pieces of gauze, and little else. With such poor equipment, it is sometimes difficult for a barefoot doctor to cook without rice.

Despite the hardship, the barefoot doctors at that time were still dedicated and passionate about serving the people.

No matter how late at night or rainy or windy days, as long as a patient called, they will go to the clinic, will be seriously for the patient to see the doctor to take injections and medication. The first thing you need to do is to get your hands on a new pair of shoes or boots. If they can't cure themselves, they suggest sending them to the hospital for treatment, and sometimes they even accompany them to the hospital in person. The barefoot doctors did not charge much for treating the sick, but only recovered the cost money, because the barefoot doctors were subsidized by the production team. Some barefoot doctors have to subsidize the cost of their services if they are in trouble with the poor and the five-guarantee households.

The barefoot doctors in the countryside are not very good at medicine, but they have a very good attitude. They often carry a Red Cross medicine box with an egg-sized print on their backs, wear white coats, and go from house to house visiting the public. Especially in the period of flu or influenza, the barefoot doctors had a greater responsibility and more hard work, they not only walked from house to house to distribute medicine, but also had to explain the knowledge of prevention, usually a day to eat a meal, sleep once a peaceful sleep. Children in the countryside are afraid of injections, so the barefoot doctors will try to coax the children, or tell them stories, or sing songs for them, and sometimes even buy a candy to give to the children, and when the children's attention is distracted, a needle falls, and before the children "wow" cry, the needle is pulled out again. In this way, the village children see the barefoot doctor, both love and fear, most of them will shrink into the mother's back, out of the head, staring blankly at the barefoot doctor on the Red Cross medicine box - that inside, both candy, more syringe.

The barefoot doctor's medical skills are not as good as his own. The barefoot doctor's medical skills are not as good as those of the doctors in the big hospitals, but sometimes the doctors in the big hospitals can't cure the disease, but the barefoot doctor can. I remember that a girl in my village went up the mountain to fetch firewood and accidentally sprained her hand. Her hand was twisted in a strange way, with one hand up and one hand down, the upward one could not be put down, and the downward one could not be stretched out, so she went to the county hospital for treatment, and the county hospital suggested that she should go to the regional hospital for treatment. The girl's parents had no money in hand and were so anxious that they came to see the barefoot doctor in the village. The barefoot doctor was eating, saw the patient, put down the bowl, and looked at the patient up and down a few times. The barefoot doctor asked about the cause of the disease and said, "I can cure this disease. So, the barefoot doctor told the patient's mother to take away the patient's pants and replace it with a straw tie, and then locked the patient in a hidden house. About an hour later, the barefoot doctor carried a gong and led the patient's parents to the door of the hidden house. The barefoot doctor struck the gong with a bang, then pushed open the door and said, "It's all right, it's all right". The patient's parents took a look at their daughter and saw that she was really well: her hands were moving freely. It turned out that the girl had sprained her hand because she couldn't bear the pain and couldn't twist it back, so she couldn't be cured. When the barefoot doctor rang the gong, the girl was so frightened that she reached for her pants, and she was cured. This is called the "girl's pain treatment method", which is a way of treating the girl's pain.

The barefoot doctor's treatment, in the eyes of the townspeople, is really high. But sometimes, they are not up to par. I remember when I was a child, there is an ear swelling and pain, my mother will pull me to see a barefoot doctor. Barefoot doctor with a hand feel, with a flashlight, said it was otitis media, then to my ears filled with medicinal water, but also said that two more times to wash on the good. But as soon as the medicine was poured into my ear, my ear became even more swollen and painful. Wash once pain once, until I can not stand, the barefoot doctor embarrassed to say: or to the county hospital to see the Department of Pentaclinic! My mother took me to the Pentacenter, the doctor said with a smile, you little guy, how to plant bean sprouts in the ear nest! After the doctor finished speaking, he used a clip to pinch out the bean sprouts in the ear socket, and my ears felt better. It turned out that I was playing in the beanstacks, a soybean ran into it and itched, so I dug it, and with the medicinal water instilled by the barefoot doctor, the bean sprouts grew in it. It is no wonder that the village barefoot doctor, because there is no reflective lighting equipment, he could not see the bean sprouts growing in my ears.

However, in those poor and backward times, the barefoot doctors made great contributions to the people, and deserve great credit. With the progress of society and the development of technology and education, now, the villages have established hospitals, doctors are standardized, barefoot doctors, gradually replaced by graduates of medical universities. This is another progress of human civilization.

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