General
Advice to next gen. medical professionals?
For those of you who live far from your transplant centres, or really anybody who has to deal with doctors and nurses who don't work in transplant, what do you wish medical staff knew?
I live 5 hours from my transplant centre, and I went to my local hospital this week to have my picc line dressing changed. Easy enough, right? It turned into this big ordeal because I got a student nurse (who told me it was her first day in any hospital working in any capacity ever. because THAT put my mind at ease.) whoever her supervisor was wasn't supervising her, I was there for 2 hours and I basically ended up doing the picc dressing change myself. As I was driving away from that experience, I thought about my encounters with medical staff. and sometimes I wonder who trains these people! It just drives my desire to work in patient advocacy, to make sure future doctors and nurses are trained not just by text books but by actual patients.
If you could say something to the next generation of doctors and nurses, OR a current medical professional who hasn't dealt with a case like yours before, what would you tell them?
1 - 10 of 10 Replies
Transplant Patient
I am so not nice like you! I would have said “ please do not experiment on me, I have been through enough and my situation is very complicated”.
jokes aside - as a young Med student I went through this many tunes when my supervisors would even tell me:
“see one, do one, teach one” does not apply her
”do one, teach one” is common practice
I was faced w this one night as a 21 year old surgical on call Med student and was told to place a urinate catheter in a man without ever having seen this done and just been taught the technique in an auditorium the week before! Luckily a nice nurse took pity on the patient(!), and intervened when the surgeon had left me alone w the poor man.
medicine is a tough business, and students are often treated the way the current elders were treated so the tradition is to be tough and push the students hard... obviously this is not great but it does push us to learn and listen and be brave, but it should never hurt the patients!!
Transplant Patient
@Karin that’s so interesting. Usually I’m ok with students practicing on me because I know they’re being watched closely so they don’t mess up. But this experience totally turned me off from the idea of people practicing on me.
in my medical narratives course we were talking about how doctors are trained and how this idea of listening to the patient’s story as a medical tool is all new. Before recently doctors had no training in actually listening and learning from people, it was all textbook. Which baffles me! I believe all medical professionals should be learning from actual patients.
Well now I feel better to know I’m not the only one who runs into these issues. I had many experiences similar to this.
Transplant Patient
@ChefAmanda i love teaching hospitals and am all for getting people to learn. But there has to be a better way, right?
does anybody know of a program that brings patients to doctors and nurses in training? @Karin @JimGleason_TRIO
@AliEm14 oh how I feel your pain and conflicting emotions! I always say yes to students because I know it's important for them to learn, but it once took a resident an hour to place a central line in me... I was tilted back on the table, covered in drapings (since it is a sterile procedure) as it took 3 tries for her to get it. The attending kept asking if I was okay and I was like "...yep!" but really was sweating profusely through the drapings 😂
I also find myself having to educate my OBGYN quite a bit re: transplant. Some questions she asked me include "do they keep the old liver in and just add the new one?" and "are you able to have children after transplant" - questions I feel she should know the answer to, and I should be asking her! I'm now looking to switch to an OBGYN who is affiliated with Hopkins, where I had my transplant, in hopes they will maybe have more experience with transplant recipients, but I think being educated on just general information regarding the transplant population, even if it isn't your specialty, should be better covered!
My transplant hospital is a teaching hospital so I saw teams of doctors at one time. One would come in early and do the pre exam then later a entire team would come in and he would give his evaluation on me and the others ask me questions. It was nice and I totally trusted them all. I was rarely ever seen by just one doctor there were always at least 2 together. The nurses were amazing and taught me so much as well.
Transplant Patient
@JimGleason_TRIO that’s exactly what I meant! I’d love to find something like that closer to me. I think that’s so valuable and needs to be in practice in all training schools everywhere
Transplant Patient
@meghansmith absolutely! I’ve had so many doctors who have said they don’t deal with transplant so they use it as an excuse for knowing nothing. Everyone should have basic knowledge of transplant in the medical field, even if it’s not your specialty
and I feel your pain. I had a student do my port a few weeks ago. I was sterile upside down for an hour. Not as bad as yours but I kept smiling and saying I was fine when honestly I couldn’t feel half my body
Transplant Patient
@Deb I’m at a teaching hospital as well so I often see groups. I wish my experience was as good as yours. Instead I find myself looking to see who will be showing up when because I only actually like and trust half of them