My medical history can sound almost unbelievable, even to me. In 2017, I underwent a spinal procedure during which the surgeon operated on the wrong part of my back, leaving me with two herniating intervertebral discs instead of one. During my post-surgical downtime, I began to wonder what I might contribute as a doctor, so applied for medical school.<\/p>\n
It was going reasonably well until I woke up one morning with functional loss in my right foot. It turned out a bit of wayward disc had started compressing one of my spinal nerve roots, resulting in permanent neurological damage. A couple of years later, during final exams for medical school, I had a funny turn and discovered a benign but nasty tumour at the base of my brain. After careful consideration, I eventually had surgery to remove it.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s interesting to straddle the space between doctor and patient. To have a foot in both camps and critically examine each experience. Here are a few of the lessons I\u2019ve learned along the way.<\/p>\n
Good bedside manner can be healing<\/p>\n
Sometimes I meet doctors who dismiss bedside manner as secondary to clinical knowledge, but I think that\u2019s nonsense. As a patient, I\u2019d always prefer the clinician who is kind, inclusive and upfront about having to double-check something over someone who\u2019s abrupt and dismissive but able to rapidly recall medical facts.<\/p>\n
We have no concrete idea the extent to which positive interpersonal interactions impact health, but I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if it\u2019s profound. Does clear, reassuring communication help ease high blood pressure? Does empathy help alleviate pain? We might never know, but I see the behavioural effects of bedside manner daily.<\/p>\n
Kindness and inclusivity encourage people to participate in their healthcare by asking questions, understanding their treatment, adhering to medication regimens and enhancing health-seeking behaviours for the future, which all have a positive impact on a person\u2019s health.<\/p>\n
Everybody looks things up, and that\u2019s fine<\/p>\n
Long before a career in medicine was on my radar, I would sometimes visit the GP and watch with a raised eyebrow as they appeared to Google my ailment and decide how to treat it based on their internet search. I\u2019ve heard the same complaint from others, the implication being that, with a sufficiently stable internet connection, we could dispense with GPs altogether. Fast-forward a few years and I now know clinicians in hospitals and specialist clinics look things up all the time too, they\u2019re just less likely to be sitting next to you when they do it.<\/p>\n
The fact is medical professionals should be looking things up, because medical science is dynamic and evolving. Some things we thought we knew decades ago seem silly now. Guidelines change with new research, and your treatment should reflect that. Also, sometimes we just forget things, the same as everyone else. In my experience, doctors are usually checking a small part of the bigger picture: an obscure anatomical landmark or the correct dose of a medication to prescribe. Often, what appears to be a random internet search directs us to niche subscription websites that only medical professionals tend to use. Double checking an answer is a much safer approach than guessing, and doctors are still drawing on their medical training to synthesise all the information they find.<\/p>\n
The emergency department is not necessarily diagnostic<\/p>\n
Some years ago, I turned up to emergency with excruciating back pain wanting an MRI to see whether something terrible had happened (again). The doctors declined. They acknowledged something was clearly wrong but reassured me I wasn\u2019t showing any signs of permanent functional loss, so they could safely discharge me home to follow up with my GP. At the time, I was furious \u2013 I wanted answers! \u2013 but now the roles have been reversed, I better understand the decision.<\/p>\n
The emergency department is fundamentally a place to rule out or treat medical danger. People will always try to get to the bottom of things diagnostically, but sometimes the answer will be, we don\u2019t quite know what this is, but we\u2019re confident it\u2019s not life-threatening and won\u2019t cause permanent harm. If you\u2019re well enough, you\u2019ll be sent home to seek answers and further treatment in the community.<\/p>\n
Uncertainty can be incredibly frustrating when you\u2019re unwell, and it\u2019s understandable to want to know what\u2019s going on with your body. But our health system doesn\u2019t always cater for the immediacy of that frustration.<\/p>\n
Hospitals aren\u2019t designed to be comfortable<\/p>\n