This was a comment I received with regards to my post on awful experience.
Another anonymous comment, but at least I know, or I’m given the impression that it’s a medical student.
1. Do you think it’s fair that medical students visit the same patient over and over again asking the same questions doing the same examination? We all still do. Ask over and over again, touch the same thing over and over again. Does it make it better that we all go at the same time? Well some of us don’t even bother to ask the rest along and just do it ourselves. If that is the culture we are brought up with? Do you think anyone would change that mentality?
Regrettably, this one of the most common grouses amongst the patients - hordes of medical students descending upon them like vultures… or predators for the kill. Yes, we do it because we want to learn from the case, and that’s one of the ways we acquire clinical experience, it’s great that you, as a medical student realise that, and since you are aware of it, (as most of us are), it’s really up to ourselves if we want to be referred to as the predator prowling the wards of unsuspecting, suffering patients, or do you want to at least try to do what you have to do with the least inconvenience to the patient. Just because it is the ‘culture we are brought up with’ does not condone such actions. Even if you think no one will change that mentality, you could at least start by changing your own mentality.
2. As medical students, we never share information, we rarely share notes with others, we rarely share cases or little gems of knowledge we picked up along the way. During tutorials we all pretend to play dumb while some unsuspecting one among us becomes the “unfortunate one”, the ones among us who have the knowledge never share, nor do we discuss our concepts of the topic, how do you expect us to function as a team, if that is the way we behave as we work together as students. Let alone as colleagues with work politics abound.
I don’t know who your fellow colleagues are, or what you’ve been through, but it’s not fair to claim that ‘we never share information, we rarely share notes with others…’ ‘Do unto others what you wish others to do unto yourself’. By the way, this is probably going to be a chilling relevation to non-medical readers out there. The same thing happens in all other classes, but the repercussions over here are more serious.
3. How many among us only do bother to capture the essence of the case medically or clinically, do we actually bother to appreciate them as individual or as cases? With such underlying notions is it really possible to do 10,000 COFM postings and still become that doctor you speak of?
I am firmly against the idea that COFM postings/lectures will make a person that doctor I speak of. COFM postings can only do enough to raise our awareness of the problems, but whether you want to take appropriate action really depends on yourself. If you think that such underlying notions exist, it’s a good first step. It shouldn’t be an excuse against showing more compassion for your patient. Just because everyone does it (or doesn’t do it), does not mean it’s right, nor does it absolve you from blame.
5. Doesn’t that doctor sound the exact medical student we all are, always wanting to find that most interesting case to clerk or examine, just for the experience, do we ever bother to be responsible for our behaviour? that we may have distressed the patient preventing the rest from learning from the patient too? with that sort of selfish mentality it’s rather hard to blame the surgeon for wanting to practise on someone, sounds exactly like a typical medical student.
I think you might have misunderstood me. I do not blame the surgeon for wanting to practise on someone, but I blame him for being obtuse about it, thus losing his patient’s confidence in his skills. A good surgeon isn’t one who never bungled or never made a slip in the operation, a good surgeon is one who also has the trust and confidence of his patient.
6.Well if we continue to forget to share or rather refuse to share our clinical gems with our fellow peers, we will spiral into a system where each of us have our own brand of “cook book” medicine. No homogenity at all. We will never straighten our misconceptions and misunderstandings and merely exact them on patients. On our 1st day of call we will realise when forced to work as a team, we are mere individuals pretending to be together as a team. To really play as a team, we need to start thinking about who we are to the team. Good luck!
Ever heard of CPGs? Maybe those would help, to a limited extent. Don’t sound so nihilistic… I’m sure if you look well enough, you’ll find the good things in medicine too. :)
To ‘medical student’, it’s great that you have gone through all the time to reflect and to share your ideas. I wish you good luck as well and hope that you will have the strength and the belief in yourself to change all these undesirable, underlying flaws you’ve recognised. I’m working hard on my side too.
