Wearing the white coat has brought me lots of respect. I’ve received more greetings, discounts on food in the cafeteria, and most importantly, questions directed my way. The questions are from patients who want answers because they BELIEVE I’m totally knowledgeable about their condition. Within me, buried beneath piles of information that need to be sorted, there’s someone who knows the answer partially. Of course I don’t know everything and I shouldn’t. I’m an investigator and I use resources to figure out differentials to ultimately reach the diagnosis. Once I see one case of right sided weakness or chest pain radiating to the left axilla, the questions, work-up, and treatment get easier. One page gets filed. One at a time. Like a flip book.
Everyone in the hospital is different. I find that knowledge means little without a good demeanor or personality. Nobody wants someone speaking to them about a procedure and its consequences especially if there’s a possibility of death. One pt asked me, after a healthcare provider finished speaking to her, “Could she have been more cold?” Some people get into the groove of things and forget their bedside manner. They speak, but they don’t quite understand the implications of their words. My mom had her gallbladder removed a couple of years ago, and I was scared. I did all the research I could on that little green bag of bile! Even after all the research I still hoped that everything would be okay. My thought process: the gallbladder emulsifies fat, it MUST be important! Now that I know cholescystectomies are performed on a regular basis for many people with symptomatic gallbladders…it doesn’t seem so bad anymore. But I have to always remember how I felt when my mother had the surgery… when her gallbladder was removed. I felt what many pt’s and their families most likely feel. THIS IS WHY there needs to be just ONE quality of care, not two. That quality of care being: treat pt’s like they’re your family. If your family member were in the hospital, you would be that patient’s number one advocate. Do they need a bandaid? You’d ask what size or type? Do they need food since they haven’t eaten anything before their stress test? You’d assure them why they’re npo, and let them know exactly when they’ll be eating. If they needed a CT immediately, you would get a transporter to their room asap and then you’d follow up to make sure they arrived to the right place.
Healthcare isn’t even close to being perfect. FAR FROM IT. I’ve only been convinced of this fact over the past few weeks. The chains need WD 40. There needs to be less unnecessary tests. Everyone is scared of being sued though. Nobody wants to lose their job, so they’ll continue doing the unnecessary tests. How do you prevent this chain of events? Create a standard through evidence-based medicine. If that’s where they say we’re headed in healthcare, lets make standards. Of course there are exceptions to all these rules, but if a 35 yo patient arrives to the ER with chest pain for 3 weeks…don’t just shotgun her with all sorts of tests. If she already rules out for an MI, and her D-dimer, CBC, CMP, and other markers are completely normal…you can’t just expose her to radiation. She’s 35, within her childbearing years! Teratogenicity anyone?
I really enjoy being in of the hospital and my exposure to PEOPLE. Not just patient’s, but people who call me the “101 question girl” or smile at me in the hallway. It’s a great feeling…rewarding even… to have gained all of this respect just by putting on my white coat. The difference between me and some of the other PAs I work with is they hold rapport among everyone they work with, so their coats just mean they have pockets.
I want pockets with a flip book on the left. Soon enough, I know. :)
