Monday 12 January 2015

Check yourself before you wreck yourself

In and around the hospital one has to be very careful with what one says... I've learnt this the hard way quite a few times, much to my embarrassment.

The first instance happened while we were on call during our Internal Medicine block. It was a very long day filled with tutorials and seeing many, many patients (it was Bara after all). I was walking around looking for one of my colleagues but it seemed that everyone was with a patient. I very politely pulled back the curtain and, in a very nice way, said "Excuse me, sir, I just need to speak with my colleague for a second". At that moment the patient, their family and my colleague gave me very strange looks. I ignored this and asked my colleague what I needed to know and, again, politely said to the patient "Thank you very much, sir".

It was then that the patient looked me in the eyes and very calmly stated "I am a woman". I was standing there in extreme embarrassment and put my foot in my mouth (even more so) by saying "I'm so terribly sorry, sir"! Seriously? Sigh... So just remember, don't always assume a beard means that the patient is a man... (Google hirsutism...)

I have a very tight-knit group of friends and we, as many others, have some inside jokes. Another interesting factoid is that I am not ghetto in the least. I'm sure you just gasped at that fact, but alas, it is true. So to up my street cred (did I use that phrase correctly?) I often, albeit sarcastically, add some ghettoness to my day (much to the dismay of my friends). This brings us to the second incident. It again happened during Internal Medicine at Bara. In GEMP I you will be taught how to examine the Respiratory system. When palpating the chest wall you can elicit a change in tactile fremitus (that simply means that you can feel a change in vibration over areas of the lung in which there is pathology like, say, pneumonia) by asking the patient to say "99" while feeling over different areas of the chest wall.

There was a patient with great signs of pneumonia and we all had a shot at eliciting these. After I examined the patient I, without really thinking, said (loud enough for the professor to hear me, sigh...) that the patient has 99 problems - and pneumonia is one. Why... Why oh why could I not just have kept my mouth shut. Everyone laughed, including the professor and the patient.

Oh, and when you do a procedure on a patient, don't ever say "Wow, not too bad for my first time!"... The patient will look at you in horror, and the intern will probably just walk away very quickly.

I share my embarrassing stories with you so that you don't make the same mistakes. And if you are going to make them, just smile, wave and swiftly walk away never to return to the scene again. The above mentioned didn't do any harm, but please do be careful with what you say in front of patients.

When you hear your very first pan systolic murmur don't show your excitement there and then. Yes, it's a great sign for you to learn from, but it's scary for the patient sitting there. Be tactful and respectful towards all your patients, always. Watch what you say and how you say it. Being in hospital is terrifying without the need for medical students discussing the poor prognosis of a disease...


2 comments:

giaonhan247 said...

Thanks for sharing, nice post! Post really provice useful information!

Giaonhan247 chuyên dịch vụ vận chuyển hàng đi mỹ cũng như dịch vụ ship hàng mỹ từ dịch vụ nhận mua hộ hàng mỹ từ trang ebay vn cùng với dịch vụ mua hàng amazon về VN uy tín, giá rẻ.

Anneke Sergio said...

HOW I GOT CURED OF HERPES VIRUS.

Hello everyone out there, I am here to give my testimony about a herbalist called Dr Imoloa. I was infected with herpes simplex virus 2 in 2013, I went to many hospitals for cure but there was no solution, so I was thinking on how I can get a solution out so that my body can be okay. One day I was in the pool side browsing and thinking of where I can get a solution. I go through many websites where I saw so many testimonies about dr imoloa on how he cured them. I did not believe but I decided to give him a try, I contacted him and he prepared the herpes for me which I received through DHL courier service. I took it for two weeks after then he instructed me to go for check up, after the test I was confirmed herpes negative. Am so free and happy. So, if you have problem or you are infected with any disease kindly contact him on email drimolaherbalmademedicine@gmail.com. Or / whatssapp --+2347081986098.
This testimony serve as an expression of my gratitude. He also has
herbal cure for, FEVER, BODY PAIN, DIARRHOEA, MOUTH ULCER, MOUTH CANCER FATIGUE, MUSCLE ACHES, LUPUS, SKIN CANCER, PENILE CANCER, BREAST CANCER, PANCREATIC CANCER, CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE, VAGINAL CANCER, CERVICAL CANCER, DISEASE, JOINT PAIN, POLIO DISEASE, PARKINSON'S DISEASE, ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE, BULIMIA DISEASE, INFLAMMATORY JOINT DISEASE CYSTIC FIBROSIS, SCHIZOPHRENIA, CORNEAL ULCER, EPILEPSY, FETAL ALCOHOL SPECTRUM, LICHEN PLANUS, COLD SORE, SHINGLES, CANCER, HEPATITIS A, B. DIABETES 1/2, HIV/AIDS, CHRONIC RESPIRATORY DISEASE, CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE, NEOPLASMS, MENTAL AND BEHAVIOURAL DISORDER, CHLAMYDIA, ZIKA VIRUS, EMPHYSEMA, TUBERCULOSIS LOW SPERM COUNT, ENZYMA, DRY COUGH, ARTHRITIS, LEUKAEMIA, LYME DISEASE, ASTHMA, IMPOTENCE, BARENESS/INFERTILITY, WEAK ERECTION, PENIS ENLARGEMENT. AND SO ON.
website- www.drimolaherbalmademedicine.wordpress.com