Doctoritis... I was once guilty

Yes, once upon a time I suffered from Doctoritis, although at the time I was straight out of college, so I can blame it partly on my youth. But the rest of the blame lay with Dr Steele.

You see, I was an impressionable young man and Dr Steele had it all. He was a twenty nine, tall, handsome, worked out at the gym and had the muscles to prove it. He also had every women in the hospital in love with him. I pictured myself in his shoes. I thought that this is what being a doctor is like and that I wanted to be one. I was reluctant to tell strangers that I was a nurse, especially as a common assumption was that male nurses are usually gay. This is not the truth, although there are certainly a fair few represented.

Like all young nurses I was good at one thing, spending money on nights out on the town. Quite often Dr Steele would join us and it was always entertaining to watch Dr Steele in action. Out of the many nights that we spent on the town there was one moment which is still so vivid. It is so vivid because it when I first thought I had made a big mistake, I actually thought "Oh shit, I'm should have been a doctor, not a nurse."

That particular night a visiting women's netball team was visiting the city and we met up with them at the local pub. The bar was a U shaped bar and were on one end of the U and the visiting ladies were on the other end of the U. I watched as several attractive ladies kept glancing at Dr Steele, hoping to catch his eye. One of them succeeded and Dr Steele went into action.

He was drinking a cocktail and began stirring his drink with his straw. The woman whom he'd made contact with copied his motion and began stirring her drink with her straw. Dr Steele then gently began to poke his straw in and out of his drink, a motion which the woman copied. She then made her way over to us. After Dr Steele explained that he was a doctor, within minutes they had left the bar.

An hour later a grinning Dr Steele returned to the bar. The night was young and there was the rest of the netball team still to conquer.

I do not want to be a doctor and I am happy I am a nurse, but as I said, I was young and impressionable. I have been a nurse for thirteen years and you don't stay in this line of work that long if you're not in it for the right reason. And now, as an older nurse it is entertaining to watch the new, young, bright eyed students succumb to Doctoritis.

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The Reason I'm not a Doctor part 2

Scenario 1, part 1 I want you to imagine you are a young family doctor and you have a patient, a young man in his early twenties, who has been battling cancer for the last year. During that year he's tried every treatment that is available, often with awful side effects, but all to no effect. In fact he's been told that he will most likely die. Now, as the family doctor, you've just discovered a new treatment that only has a 50% chance of working. Regardless of whether the treatment works or not, it will have horrendous side effects, much worse than he has had yet. Now, what do you do? If you decide to tell him how do you go about this?

My answer was this:
1. Make sure that before you even talk to the patient you have all the facts and/or relevant people to refer to. Remember it's a new procedure and you don't want to get up any false hopes

2. Choose an appropriate time/place to tell him about the news. For example, a family meeting (if appropriate) or some other support person in attendance when you tell him about the new procedure.

3. Make sure he takes some time to make the decision, even if they say yes/no straight away.

The Interview Panel's Response:

1. " Could you please explain your answer?" I was at a complete loss at what to say as I thought my answer was complete and covered the issue of informed consent and providing a supportive environment ie family/friends.

2. After I told them that I had said all I had to say, their was a general shaking of heads and frowns. They then asked the next part of the question "Your patient chooses to take the treatment. He has horrendous side effects, but it fails. He comes into your office and blames you for all that has happened to him. What do you do/say?"

My Response

Don't take it personally, especially as anger is part of the grieving process. Be patient. Get the patient's support people involved.

The Panel's Response

"Is that all?" This was said in an almost disbelieving voice by the doctor with the knighthood. I was at a complete loss trying to figure out what more they could want, so I asked them. Their reply made me realize that I was never going to make the grade. "You haven't touched on any of the possible legal issues. You haven't protected yourself."

My Opinion

I felt disappointed that the panel didn't seem interested in the caring side of my answer, the bit about the family/support people, choosing the right time in place. I felt I had met my obligation by making sure my patient was informed.

As for the second part of the question, I still don't know what else I could have done except to understand where my patient was at.

I am well over any thoughts of becoming a doctor, their loss.

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The Reason I'm not a Doctor part 1

A few years ago I thought I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to do more for my patients and be the one to make the medical decisions, especially when I saw how awful some doctors were. I knew I could do a better job and I knew that I was committed enough, after-all I would be giving up six years of my working life when I could be earning, traveling, getting married, plus I would end up at least $100,000 in debt. But my dreams were shattered by my betters.

I had been told that it was difficult to even make it to the interview stage, so when I received an invite to attend such an interview, I began to get my hopes up. "I'm Professor Stickler" the owner of this voice was a tall, broad shouldered man with a head of silver. He looked the antithesis of your stereotypical diminutive, bespectacled professor. "This is Sir Edward Jones" he indicated the man to his left. "And on your right is Dame Catherine Smith" he said, indicating the woman on his right.

Needless to say, the introductions didn't put me at ease, instead they seemed to highlight the vast gulf between these privileged personages and my humble background. I didn't come from a medical background. Neither my father or mother were doctors, and until such things as taking government loans became commonplace to pay for university, we never had the money to pay for such an education.

The interview began and I answered the questions to the best of my ability. I even felt I answered them well, until about twenty minutes into the interview. They began a part of the interview that Sir Edward Jones described as a "Vital and Integral" part of the interview process. It was scenario time.

Scenario 1, part 1 I want you to imagine you are a young family doctor and you have a patient, a young man in his early twenties, who has been battling cancer for the last year. During that year he's tried every treatment that is available, often with awful side effects, but all to no effect. In fact he's been told that he will most likely die. Now, as the family doctor, you've just discovered a new treatment that only has a 50% chance of working. Regardless of whether the treatment works or not, it will have horrendous side effects, much worse than he has had yet. Now, what do you do? If you decide to tell him how do you go about this?

This was my questions. I won't give the answer I gave just yet as I'm curious as to how others' may answer. What I will say is that it was during the course of answering this scenario when I realized that I wouldn't succeed in being accepted into medical school.

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