The Good-Bad Medicine Student.

It is not usual for me to write a blog post in English, I used to do it back in 2008 but, well i don't know.. today I feel like posting in English.

Anyway, I need to share this experience with anyone who reads my blog or even if nobody does, this would be a catharsis for me.. I think I haven't had a day like this in months.

I'm in my seventh semester now, and it's one of the most unorganized yet interesting semesters of the career; every week we have a "6 hour" class of one subject, for example, urology, endocrinology, ophtalmology, etc..  My school wants me to learn as much as I can in 1 week, I repeat.. 1 week :) CRAZY & STUPID, but what can we do about it.

So this week i'm having Ophtalmology, and it has been good I guess.., except for the part were we have not been told what the evaluation consists on, and we have not been informed of the diseases we are suposed to learn or read over the week until today.

So.. today the classmates went crazy over deciding who would go to surgery or to the consultory after our 2 out of 6 hour class.. I was pushed over stress and not knowing what the fuck was happening, to attend the consultory with other 3 students.

In the beggining it was ok, a charming gentle doctor explained us the Snell (Snellen?) chart, the equipment they used and basically things they do daily. Shit happened after we were given one pacient.

We had to do her clinical record and the Snell chart test, and give it to the doctor after we finished this 2 simple things, so she could explain us  what the managment of the patient would be. I tought "Ok, this is interesting, we won't know what the patient has";, my classmates were ok with it at the beginning too.

So this patient came from endocrynology just to check her eyes because she was given medicine for DM, Artrithis, and others that are usually bad for the eyes..

We did this and half of my team then dissapeared.. vanished, like dust in the wind. I guess the case wasn't "interesting" or enough "brain-brightening" for them.

Half of the team was now with other patient,  then with another doctor, going like sponges, absorbing whatever information they could whether was from the doctors or the patients.

Patient & doctor---> information, notes taken in front of the patient, comments made in front of the patient, questions asked in front of the patient, questions asked, questions asked--> Let's put a really white bright light on your eye for about 1 minute while I seek and see nothing, and my mate sees nothing too ---> Oh look that patient over there let's go see -----> patient no longer useful---> Next!

WHAT THE .......you know what

I got pissed, not because I was being ignored, not because I was not taking notes, not because I was hungry and tired, I got pissed by the attitude and the way these people took.

-People are not objects
-There is something called empathy
-You should watch your comments in front of the patient.
-The questions solved should be the patient ones, not the student ones, that's why we have class before, or they should be asked after the patient is done.
-We were suppossed to be a team, make a clinical record and deliver it.
-We were suppossed to treat nicely and follow this patients case even if her case wasn't "Interesting" until she was gone (wich took only like half an hour).

I don't know... I mean I tought I wasn't good in this (med), but.. today I got to the conclusion that, not everything in medicine is theory, knowing everything, you have to empathize with people, know how to "read them", know how to listen, this is something important, this could be what makes you (in the eyes of the patient) a Good or a Bad doctor.

I know I didn't win anything by getting angry, because:
1. I'm still a student, and i'm not in charge of any patient
2. Because getting angry is not intelligent anyhow
3.Because I know I have the right vision and mission.
4. Because People will be people, I can't change them.

Yet I couldn't help it, but still this was something I learned from, and I'm happy I experienced it.

So, today, I just want YOU! Med student to have a reflexion on this, theory is about a 70%, the rest is being a human. Please remember this every time you see a patient, be discrete when you have too, ask questions properly and when it is proper to ask them, and most important of all listen to your patient and respect him/her.

"El médico competente, antes de dar una medicina a su paciente, se familiariza no sólo con la enfermedad que desea curar, sino también con los hábitos y la constitución del enfermo."-Cicerón.

Thank you for reading this.
Carolina.

Ps. this blog is personal and it has no intetion to hurt no one whatsoever, the intention is expressed in the final paragraph.