One of our new house officers commented that the most difficult part of her job was to liaise for an urgent radiological investigation.
This is no doubt the case. My initial reaction was, however, that represents part of the training. It needs quite a bit of medical knowledge and linguistic skill to appreciate why an investigation was ordered and present the story in a coherent (and hopefully persuasive) manner.
You may argue, "but not all of the tests were requested because of completely logical and scientific reasons !"
Certainly. That's life. Everyone who takes a salary would have the experience of being asked to take up some unrealistic tasks - why should doctors be spared ?
"But our objective is to treat the patient !"
No, you are wrong there. Treating the patient is merely one of the objectives - and often not the one top of the list. We also treat the relatives, colleagues, and seniors - in an ascending order of difficulty.
And very soon house officers would mature and learn the non-scientific ways to handle illogical requests: fraud, bribery, intimidation, and what not.
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1 comment:
Yep, I still remember ~ 2 years ago, I was waved into the 9B side room by a senior, warning me that I had too strong a personal style (ie: had been asking too much, thinking too much, rather than simply doing or following instructions as my peer houseofficers) and that my pledge to serve my patients was wrong, but rather, to serve the bosses should be the top aim for me if I really wanted to get in and be a resident of this department.
But walla! luckily, I still got in without compromising.
Integrity, self-discipline and honesty can never be compromised, hopefully.
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