When medical students begin seeing live patients on a
regular basis, it is an interesting thing.
First of all, live patients must be contrasted with non-live (eg, not
real patients) actors and actresses, many of whom give of their time and
energies to pose for fledgling first and second year students who may still be
picking pieces off their clothes following an extended session in the gross
anatomy lab. We’ll save that description
of a non-live situation for another day.
Even though these faux patient encounters are helpful in teaching the
early methods of examination, we all know “it’s not the real thing, baby.” So, enter third year clerkship rounds when
it’s go time- real, genuine, make-no-mistake, you have the power to hurt this
person, REAL patient! Imagine the fear,
the excitement, the adventure, and.…the amazingly simple realization that this
is a person just like you and me; a patient who has real needs and has at some
level humbled themselves to present an illness or pain or problem. Now there are many problems, perceived or
real, and we are trained to categorize them as Chief Complaints.
But no matter how many we see in a day,
discharge in the morning, or admit in the afternoon, the patient is the reason
why we practice the art of medicine. When
I was growing up, my Dad would sometimes ask me when I needed focus, “Who made
you?” I quickly learned the answer was,
“God.” I cannot tell you how many times
that same question helps keep me grounded and engaged with patients, no matter
the situation. The implications are
clear- if God made me, then he also made patients, and therefore, we, in a very
real sense, share the same Creator.
Let’s learn to love again what is best about our profession, our
patients.
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