"You have cancer." A the age of 20, these words pierced through me and effectively dismantled life as I knew it. Leaving behind my world as a health college student, I plunged head first into the world of medicine, meeting more health care practitioners than I can remember. I was young, strong and had a positive prognosis, but like many patients I was scared and lost in unfamiliar territory. Living through the emotions of a patient allowed me to experience the power of the relationship a patient has with providers. I decided in my ICU bed that my forced exposure to medicine could only strengthen my resolve to enter the field of medicine, and I would take away all that I could from my time there.
People are hardly themselves when undergoing illness. Frustrations, fatigue, worry, and pain distort our normal personalities, challenging physicians to remain objective. In my clinical rotations I have seen how outbursts and harsh words from patients affect healthcare providers when they fail to put those words in context. In the emergency department I saw a patient demanding narcotics who was quickly dismissed by some staff as an obnoxious drug seeker. The physician I worked under, however, was patient and gave her the benefit of the doubt. We gave her something for pain and took a thorough history. After a CT scan we realized she had every reason to be screaming in pain. Days, and a trip to the OR later, she was a completely different person, thankful and polite.
Personally I can remember lashing out at staff as they woke me early in the morning after a trying two weeks of treatment with terrible side effects. Moreover, I ws alone and depressed. Staff avoided me or got in and out of my room as quickly and quietly as possible. This only furthered my slump. An easy choice is to look at the objective data in the chart to see that a patient is doing fine, and dismiss the patient's actions. One nurse, however, entered my room each time similing and undaunted; by taking the time to speak with me she realized there was more than met the eye. She boosted my mood and sped my recovery.
As clinicians we cannot be strayed from the right path by what is in the chart or what is only on the exterior. Taking the time to delve deeper can make all the difference even though, sometimes, that discussion may be uncomfortable for the practitioner. We need to step back from the rush of our work to remind ourselves that patients as well as their families are truly lost in our world.
Stephen Ryan Gore
UICOM-P Class of 2012
