Doctors can be so annoying. Louie went to the neurologist today for a check up and he says "you know, unfortunately, people with epileptic conditions can be affected by sudden death." Yeah dude, we know. She's fucking 19. This is not news. You've been seeing her since she was like 10. We've been told this by not only you but plenty other doctors. "Uhhh you know she might just suddenly die at any second" thanks for reminding me. Half her classmates, her friends, have passed. We fucking know.
The most recent Doctor-shaming incident was done on a medical intern at another hospital. It is just one of the many Facebook posts against fellow doctors.
Honestly, I can see myself doing the same on social media when I was younger, but it really takes years of maturity to control yourself from posting such things in Facebook. Not every complaint posted for a viral cause would equate to justice in the form of social media shaming. Personally for me, I would not approve of such passive-aggressive behavior to destroy someone’s reputation and dignity, epecially when resolution of the matter was not even given active effort.
The Phone as an Essential Item of Medical Care:
I can never survive without a phone at the ER. It’s my lifeline to my residents, and consultants. We usually refer ER patients to them nowadays via SMS or Viber including pictures (taken with the consent of the patient), especially for trauma and medico-legal cases.
Things are not only limited to the ER setting:
Doctors are walking everywhere and not just the ER. Duty residents do day and night rounds with consultants to also check the admitted patients. That is also the reason why however menial our work as clerks and interns are to other mature members of the medical hierarchy, we are still first in line to do the history and physical examination of patients and subsequently refer them to our seniors when they are not available.
As Part of the Medical Team Be Ready and Be Careful:
When I was an intern myself like the involved person is in the picture, we were given a briefing about the possible encounters of such instances. The best way to avoid such is to never use your mobile phones and gadgets around the patient you are attending to, including their family. Stay fully alert during duty, and if possible, deck in sleeping time and bathroom breaks. Stay neat and never forget that too. Discreet usage is encouraged at the proper venue, with proper disclosure of usage when used in emergent and critical areas of the ER.
Patients and Their Families Have the Device:
It’s not really a fair case to put it on the table. Doctors are demanded to limit the use mobile phones but patients on the other hand, are not demanded to the same. There is really no clear line of etiquette for both sides of the party to avoid all the doctor-shaming incidents. On my part, what matters most is that I am cleared of committing any HIPAA violation on the line of duty.
I was not spared from the usage of my patients’ mobile phones to take my picture or video while doing procedures in the ER. Who am I to turn them down? When I was a clerk, a girl who I had her eyes irrigated from a caustic injury took a selfie with me to show how grateful she was of the care. I personally don’t know where she has uploaded the selfie nor its positive or negative caption. Another experience was when the wife of a professional basketball player took the video of me and my resident suturing the busted scalp of her husband. I don’t know what happened to that either. I just hope something was posted in a positive way.
The life in the ER:
I personally find being in the ER in my major rotations as one of the hardest jobs I had as a medical clerk and intern. Other than the stress and endless critical thinking you do, the hospital hierarchy hierarchy made it worse. Everyone is just stressed to the point that others make it a habit of stressing other members of the medical staff. In a span of 24 hours, I rarely got a bathroom break. As one of my internship groupmates can describe it, we were peeing very concentrated Cobra Energy Drink urine. Compression stockings just delay all the aches of your legs and feet from all the standing and walking. And then there comes that type of patient you get just like the series and the movies, along with demanding family members who always poses a threat to doctor-shaming if you don’t approach them as expected.
Some Messages:
To future patients and their family members: Please learn to exercise your right to ask questions for every procedure (including the use of the doctor’s mobile phone). It’s also a shame to exchange a non-verified action with an unethical act.
To the person who was unknowingly shamed: Stay strong, humble and persevere. We learn from such temporal setbacks even if we don’t deserve such. I guess technology has made more gray areas to the current practice of how we communicate with other medical staff.
Recently, there have been multiple Facebook posts against medical practioners. Pictures and/or videos of doctors, either sleeping, texting, or doing a procedure have surfaced the web with additional malicious comments. It’s quite upsetting because as a doctor myself, I feel threatened by such actions by my patients and their folks.
A few days ago, while I was helping my intern in restraining a toddler while she inserts an IV, the toddler’s father was taking a video of us. He was caught in act by our resident doctor. He claimed that taking a video doesn’t matter because it’s his child anyway. But I beg I disagree. What was his motive in taking the video?
Sir, first and foremost, we are doing our job seriously. We are restraining your child because we want to make sure that the IV insertion would be successful on the first hit. Second of all, if we fail in our insertion, it is NOT because we are not competent but because of multiple factors. If only you could hear the screams of pain from my muscles as I tried my hardest to restrain your daughter without hurting her, I bet you would understand. And if you want to play the blame game, I would gladly tell you that you have let your child be sick for days without seeking medical attention. She was moderately dehydrated, bordering severe dehydration, when she was brought to the ER. Her veins we collapsing immediately. Dear sir, the body doesn’t lie.
So, let me get this out of my chest. We aren’t “practicing” on our child. If only you could have seen our own bruised hands, tender from all the needles we stick into them for practice. We aren’t apathetic creatures who sleep during our tour of duty while our patients couldn’t because of discomfort due to the lack of beds in the ER. If only we could tell you when was the last time we laid on our own beds, take a proper bath or even eat a proper meal. We aren’t disrespectful just because you see us texting or calling almost all the time. If only we could show you our inbox full of unread messages from family and friends, and call logs with only our consultants names on it.
We have sacrificed a lot for this profession. We didn’t only miss birthdays, holidays, and reunions, but also missed taking care of our own selves. We have to live through meal-less days, sleepless nights and even be on our feet for more than 24 hours. We have defied the rules we created to be healthy. We didn’t choose this career for personal gain. We had lost everything for us to achieve this career. And now, people would just take pictures and videos and post them online, causing us our career? If you had no confidence in us, then why bring your child (or family) to us?
Here's a little C.M.E. on ethics and pain management for the medical professionals who provide genital cutting as a service to parents:
There can be no therapeutic benefits of pain when the pain is from a non-therapeutic (and non-consensual) amputation, not even if you share the freakish views on circumcision which were commonplace when this mutilation was medicalized:
"A remedy which is almost always successful in small boys is circumcision, especially when there is any degree of phimosis. The operation should be performed by a surgeon without administering an anæsthetic, as the brief pain attending the operation will have a salutary effect upon the mind, especially if it be connected with the idea of punishment, as it may well be in some cases.
In females, the author has found the application of pure carbolic acid to the clitoris an excellent means of allaying the abnormal excitement, and preventing the recurrence of the practice in those whose will-power has become so weakened that the patient is unable to exercise entire self-control." -- John Harvey Kellogg
Thanks for listening.
Ethics: circumcising doctors FAIL.
