I vow not to call my patients “difficult.” Here’s why.

I am not a doctor.  (Yet.)  I am a novice third-year medical student, somewhat able to perform and document a physical exam on a sleeping child, to dial the correct number to call a consult and to make wild guesses about chest X-rays (“I see a consolidation?”). I write about medicine not from a position of experience, but of malleability.  I want to become like the best doctors I see. Towards that goal, so far, so good.  My first rotation in the hospital confirms the stereotype that pediatricians are among the nicest and most patient doctors.  Indeed, I am already cataloging the dialogue on morning rounds of the senior doctors answering every question posed by parents, often staying behind to discuss those questions at length no matter how trivial. But it is the dialogue in the team room after rounds, when the students, residents and attending doctors write notes, order medications, call consults and do whatever else doctors do, that I wonder about.  Here, we are free to joke about how long the parents talked, how terrible it is to be yelled at for trying to do the right thing, how difficult people can be.  These are natural and predictable things to feel.  But is it wrong to talk about them? Continue reading ... Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how.
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Education Hospital-Based Medicine Neurology Primary Care Source Type: blogs