Comments on: Teaching medical students to become "more caring" doctors

By: Bijoux

Bijoux — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:01:00 +0000

the best way to deal with weird posters is to ignore them. Back to task here..doctors and nurses who have compassion (and there are some!~) have either never lost it through medical school OR they had some amazing role models. I have a phobia of medical procedures and I have to meet with the doctor or nurse ahead of time to discuss how to deal with keeping my stress level down so i don’t have an adverse reaction during the procedure which nobody wants. Within 2 minutes of talking with people I can tell if they have any ability to work outside the box. If they see the importance of colaborating with the patient to get the best outcome…they actually might be a great doctor!
I asked one guy once how he got to be so kind when he was fresh out of medical school…he said in medical school there are “dummy patients” in a semester program who are hired to give residents direct feedback on their bedside manner. He said he learned alot obout making eye contact, sitting and really listening and taking notes and reading back what he heard.
I wish they all had this devotion!

By: Paul A. Hoadley

Paul A. Hoadley — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 03:42:00 +0000

"Here in Australia medical school is free."

I was going to claim that your statement isn't entirely true, but I can't think of a way in which it's even partially true, as you admit a couple of sentences later:

"You do get slugged with a government levied "contribution scheme" once you start earning serious money, but it's nothing like $50,000 a year."

I guess there's a partial truth: it certainly isn't $50,000 per year. It's currently (at most) just over $8,000. The contributions are levied every year of study (that is, six years for an undergraduate), and it's the repayments which can be deferred until the student's income reaches some nominal amount. Currently, that's a little over $36,000 per year, which doesn't, in my opinion, come near qualifying as "serious money".

Anyway, to get back on topic: medical students are already required to tag along with nurses, midwives, various paramedicals and ambulance crews. This program sounds like yet another enormous waste of time.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 00:13:00 +0000

Thanks for asking. I suppose I post about that too much here. I find out next week where I go for July 2007. I made the mistake of telling my evil boss what I planned to do and he told me I couldn't see anymore new patients. Since I am on commission only that was akin to him firing me. So I "quit" and got a job as a hospitalist for this last year. It felt a little crazy to quit a job for a fellowship I don't really have yet, but the primary care is slowly killing.

Much like Tom Sawyer at his own funeral, it has actually been rather heartfelt telling some of the people I previously thought were buck-crazy that I was leaving. Then they suprise me and we have a tender moment.

I also made the unbalanced decision to buy the hematology self assessment test so I could spend the next year studying. I heard heme was the harder board to pass.

Did you interview for next year or are you starting this year?
b

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 16:15:00 +0000

Hey b this is OT but when does fellowship begin?

By: ipanema

ipanema — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 14:35:00 +0000

thanks, i know. just curious with your info.

By: Joe in Australia

Joe in Australia — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 11:27:00 +0000

As I understand it, if you’re a permanent resident of Australia you get a certain amount of credit towards undergraduate education. This pays some large percentage of the cost of your course – 75%? You get another amount of credit for postgraduate education. At present medical school here counts as an undergraduate course, but the University of Melbourne plans to change that.

Both of these credit allowances are indexed to inflation and must be paid back once you’re earning a reasonable income. It’s a pretty sweet deal, but it’s not really on-topic for this blog.

By: ipanema

ipanema — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 21:24:00 +0000

Anon 1:33 or b,

Can you imagine a doctor acting that way? I feel disgust since I've hold doctors with high esteem but that one should be kept in a mental asylum. Why dont you tell him to open his mind a bit. And this is not a place to vent out frustration. The freeway is better.

He may be free to type anonymously but I hope he won't be complacent enough, it's easy to have him track down.

Of course, the topic is on compassion, he doesnt have one. Even if I let him read legal liability issues, I doubt he'll take it by heart.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 20:48:00 +0000

You are still missing my point.

I hope you continue to read and think about things that only reinforce what you previously believed. Thats a great way to grow.
b

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 19:14:00 +0000

Anon 1:48, if you are from the Asia-Pacific region, Melbourne University’s Faculty of Medicine is highly regarded. Perhaps those who dont know about anatomy belong to other universities.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 18:57:00 +0000

b, Last I heard slander was still against the law. Your being exactly what this person doesn't need. Coming up with a thousand reasons to make excuses and justify his behavior.

When a man beats on his wife and children do we excuse him for it because he may have a stressful job so therefore he has a right too such behavior?

This guy likes being the way he is. He knows exactly what he is doing. He does it simply because he can. Now if he were to walk into a shopping center and start calling women "whores" for no reason, he knows he would never get away with it. He has found his safety here on the internet where he believes it is accepted behavior. But guess what, all these people he abuses here are the same ones that go to shopping malls, with the same feelings and emotions.

Stop enabling this guy!