Not a single person in my family is involved in medicine. Nor do they enjoy being anywhere near the doctor’s office or a hospital so naturally, I had no exposure to medicine till my high school years except for being a fan of medical television such as Grey’s Anatomy and House. During this time, I became privy to a different side of medicine and health care. Shadowing doctors and volunteering in a hospital, I was fascinated by the unique language that separated the hospital from the world outside. Nurses soothing hysterical patients and families, surgical interns grappling for the best surgeries, doctors sniffing out drug-seeking patients- things you wouldn’t learn in med school in your textbooks. Part of this new language seemed cold and detached to me- just what my mother despised. For example, at times patients would be identified by their conditions rather than their names. The hypothetical patient in room 342 was called “mitral valve replacement” rather than “Lara” or “the mother of two”. In other cases, I saw interns being left to perform CPR on a car accident victim who was gone before he even reached the hospital.
To exemplify this detachment, as I followed my doctor through the hospital,
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After observing and shadowing doctors, there is so much more to being a healer than merely possessing medical knowledge and practicing the medicine. The doctors that I have seen know more about their patients than just their stats and medications; they care about these patients. They view themselves as humans first and doctors second, connecting with patients on an emotional and personal level, and taking care of their medical needs as well. Their compassion, comprehension, and cooperation are essential in any patient-doctor relationship, even under the pressure of sleep-deprivation and the chance of fallibility because they know there is no other
Tina, I see you have selected a primary or family care physician to follow up with. Having a family doctor is so important to assure that your wound is healing properly and also for your long-term health care management. Excellent job! Dr. Cade is located at Shadow Health Clinic and his office is in the next building just after the hospital entrance. Your appointment is this Friday at 10:30 a.m.
Today, many medical students are learning how to face cross- cultural issues. For example, the University of Wisconsin developed an “integrated multi-cultural curriculum,” in order to practice cross-culture. This includes the following: “panel and group discussions, case conferences, student interviews, role-playing exercises, and home visits (271.)” Furthermore, Stanford is trying to convey the “whole doctor-whole patient” model to be used again. What this model does is it allows doctors to, “bring his or her full humanity (275.)”
Sometimes when patients come into the hospital it can be difficult at times for them when they are feeling bad in knowing exactly what is going on. There are cases where it’s
Taneisha Grant’s narrative “When the Simulated Patient is for Real” discusses the real-life application of the information one learns in school by describing a situation between Doctor Grant and her patient, a worrisome man named Mr. G. Grant highlights the need to understand the patients themselves prior to treatment through her encounter with this patient. This encounter ultimately reminded her that her education will always continue to effect and to increase throughout her work. Grant takes a very patient-oriented view, making clear her medical aim to be helping her patients as best as possible. She mentions a need for objectivity, because it does not matter what “race, gender, or socioeconomic” status the patient has (Grant 182).
From the very onset of my undergraduate career, I knew two things: I wanted to be a physician and I wanted to return home to work in my community. Growing up in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, I was brought up in a rural, medically under-served area. Lack of facilities, short handed manpower, and patient ignorance of medical information all contribute to a rather rocky health care system within the community. Once I arrived to Xavier, I quickly joined a research lab, and have gained over 1000 hours of lab work. Additionally, through my research experiences, I gained immense amounts of both scientific and medical knowledge.
While I enjoyed working as a part of a supportive healthcare team, I wanted more than to work with patients from behind the counter. I wanted to prescribe the right drug the first time, to develop meaningful and effective relationships with patients, and to use the skills I mastered as an English major – to write and speak in a clear and concise manner, to interpret complex information, to research, and to think critically – every
In those hospital visits I had become accustomed to the sights and smells of a doctor’s office that instead of reminding me of pain, comforted me. I knew from then on, that the medical field was where I was called to serve.
Since my mom was a nurse, I frequently heard about the life inside a hospital, but I never paid attention until I went back to visit family in India. When I went back, I realized how simple things, such as
And there is a question that pops up right away, do doctors ever get knowledge in what they are doing today? Do they really want to help? I grew up in a loud house with lots of family members. I lived with my mom, grandparents and uncle. Of course, the house was loud because of me, but this story isn’t about me.
As the authors on numerous occasions enforced, in T.V. shows, I too usually equate the doctor as the primary care giver to the patient in each case. One statement by the authors especially struck me: in the show Grey’s Anatomy, the nurse functioning as an on-hand consultant for the actors “shows the actors playing physicians how to do important things nurses really do, and lends an air of realism to a show that portrays her profession as trivial” (17). The only appearances I usually witness on television by nurses usually fit into the authors’ identification as the “mute handmaiden” (9) or “peripheral subordinates” (17) role; appearing behind the doctor, just fixing an IV, or handing over some medical documents for the doctor to actually analyze and then dramatically diagnose. Upon some further reflection after reading, I realize that even in reality I tend to envision nurses as more or less assistants to doctors or physicians in the clinical setting. I certainly agree that this is in part due to how poorly they are presented in the media.
Through my studies of human expression and its reflection of how people deal with world events in different ways, I developed sensitivity to other worldviews that continues to prove useful through my daily interactions with people of different backgrounds. I have learned that just like art, medicine involves pattern recognition and derives insight from experiences. Similarly, what I especially enjoy about being a medical assistant is interacting with patients on a daily basis and getting to be a part of their medical experiences, even if it is just by lending an ear. The experiences on my path to a career in medicine have made me want to make a real, tangible difference in the lives of those around me – a difference that leaves my patients in a better condition than they were in before I met them.
As an aspiring physician in Emergency Medicine, it is hard to describe typical physician workday activities. Every day is unique and filled with many opportunities to learn and develop clinical, interpersonal communication, leadership and critical thinking skills. Despite this, there are certain routine activities which I had the opportunity to observe through my shadowing experience in the Emergency and Operating rooms at California Hospital Medical Center, Los Angeles. One day, a two year old patient came into the ER after falling and cutting her head. The patient’s mother told the physician that her daughter is nervous and scared.
My first comprehensive exposure to the health care field was six years ago as a senior, during which time I participated in hospital-based schooling. This program allowed me to observe a multitude of different medical disciplines, with rotations in surgery, orthopedics, nutrition, dermatology, gastroenterology, neurology, administrative services, and many more. Three out of the five school days were dedicated solely to shadowing, and the other two were spent in the classroom learning various medical-centric studies. Once in college, I continued to shadow physicians whenever my class scheduled permitted. I participated in the 4-U Mentorship program, which paired me with a fourth-year medical student who was preparing to do his residency in general
Doctors take care of patients to make this world a healthier place- but that’s not all. Doctors are the necessary catalysts for change and order. They show the world what must be changed through new medical treatments, patient care, and more. Without them, there would be no difference between someone who wants to make a change versus one that actually does make a change. This part of the health field was something I was exposed to at a young age.
That is one of the responsibilities I want to take upon myself. I want to use the art of the medicine to heal those that need healing, non judging of their circumstances. Still, I believe that when physicians enlist themselves on the career of medicine they know that they will experience daily life roller coasters. Sometimes there will be days when they will be able to cure or save a life, other times they will unfortunately encounter deaths of patients. But that is why medicine is spellbinding, doctors know that they are not gods yet