Patient's feelings
Posted by Way Siong | | Posted On Friday 22 April 2005 at 10:57 am
Woke up feeling like my day would turn out bad today, possibly because I burnt my shirt last night.. I was trying to iron the shirt but the iron was too hot. I think someone put the setting to the hottest… Just a split second of me placing the iron on top of the shirt, the shirt burnt and a nice looking hole formed on the sleeve… That was the demise of my favourite shirt… sigh…
The clinical session today was quite interesting. We were briefed on the basics of a physical examination. The physical examination includes 4 parts, that is inspection, Palpation, Percussion and auscultation.
The cool thing about today is that I’ve brought a lot my stethoscope… which I bought the other day for $260… its pretty expensive… but I guess its worth it because I’ll be using it for a long time… Anyway, we were walking in the hospital holding a stethoscope, very cool… haha!
Today, we were exposed to three patients with different problems each. Its basically for us to practice on our history taking skills and to learn about the physical exam.
The patients today taught me about patient feelings and emotions. One particular patient that I could still remember is a very fit and healthy 90-year-old patient. He had an operation some time ago to correct his common iliac artery sometime ago by a very famous cardiologist. He is now hospitalised for a case of bowel obstruction, where the food are unable to pass down through the intestines. After some examination, they found out that some twisting of his small intestines causes the problem and they had an operation to correct it. The doctors here relate the bowel obstruction to the previous operation. He was quite upset with the suggestion because he really trusted the other doctor, giving explanations that the doctor did not do the finishing touch but someone else did because the doctor is tired. He was defending the other doctor so much; I was touched by what impact a doctor could have for the patient.
After a while, he went on to tell us about his war experiences. He seemed very sad when he started to talk about it… possibly because he had lost many friends in the war. His facial expression had changed so much. Our tutor was holding his hand, trying to comfort him with words. He also touched on his wife, which I think is suffering from dementia. She was sent to a nursing home nearby and he would visit him everyday. His eyes were watery when he talked about her. How her memory could not last for long. He looked really sad. I felt quite touched at his love for his wife. Patients all have their emotional burdens and feelings. As a medical practitioner, I learnt that I have to refine my skills in dealing with patients are depressed. This makes medicine different from mechanics… we heal people that have their own feelings. In addition, proper emotional care is also important to provide the best care for the patient so that he or she would recover.
The clinical session today was quite interesting. We were briefed on the basics of a physical examination. The physical examination includes 4 parts, that is inspection, Palpation, Percussion and auscultation.
The cool thing about today is that I’ve brought a lot my stethoscope… which I bought the other day for $260… its pretty expensive… but I guess its worth it because I’ll be using it for a long time… Anyway, we were walking in the hospital holding a stethoscope, very cool… haha!
Today, we were exposed to three patients with different problems each. Its basically for us to practice on our history taking skills and to learn about the physical exam.
The patients today taught me about patient feelings and emotions. One particular patient that I could still remember is a very fit and healthy 90-year-old patient. He had an operation some time ago to correct his common iliac artery sometime ago by a very famous cardiologist. He is now hospitalised for a case of bowel obstruction, where the food are unable to pass down through the intestines. After some examination, they found out that some twisting of his small intestines causes the problem and they had an operation to correct it. The doctors here relate the bowel obstruction to the previous operation. He was quite upset with the suggestion because he really trusted the other doctor, giving explanations that the doctor did not do the finishing touch but someone else did because the doctor is tired. He was defending the other doctor so much; I was touched by what impact a doctor could have for the patient.
After a while, he went on to tell us about his war experiences. He seemed very sad when he started to talk about it… possibly because he had lost many friends in the war. His facial expression had changed so much. Our tutor was holding his hand, trying to comfort him with words. He also touched on his wife, which I think is suffering from dementia. She was sent to a nursing home nearby and he would visit him everyday. His eyes were watery when he talked about her. How her memory could not last for long. He looked really sad. I felt quite touched at his love for his wife. Patients all have their emotional burdens and feelings. As a medical practitioner, I learnt that I have to refine my skills in dealing with patients are depressed. This makes medicine different from mechanics… we heal people that have their own feelings. In addition, proper emotional care is also important to provide the best care for the patient so that he or she would recover.
Sounds like you're grasping the Bio/Psycho/Socio/Spiritual model of illness well. Could bode well for a career in psychiatry if that's your interest, or perhaps gerontology ?
Like your blog!
I'm still a young mind in medicine.. so i haven't really grasped what fields are there that i could explore.. However, i do doubt that i can really be a psychiatry, as my social skills are not extraodinary per se. :) thanks for coming! do come often!