Thursday, September 18, 2008

Speaking Doctorese - Why physicians can't communicate (National Post)

What is your doctor hiding from you? In his new book Hippocrates' Shadow: Secrets from the House of Medicine, emergency physician David H. Newman reveals uncomfortable truths about the profession. Today, learning how to obtain a good bedside manner.

Our class sat in the lecture hall, uncommonly attentive. Playing on the screen in front of us was a video of a woman undergoing a detailed breast and pelvic examination. Oddly, the woman looked into the camera and narrated as she was examined. She was a "professional patient," and in addition to being regularly poked and prodded by hapless medical students at our institution, she played the lead role in this educational videotape. It was indeed educational. And strange.

After the video had finished, we stood in the hallway outside the lecture hall. There was scattered nervous laughter and some awkward discussion, with many of the female students expressing amazement -- "How does she do that?" -- or just shaking their heads.

The male students fell into two distinct groups -- one silent, the other not so. Our class had a number of what we referred to as "six-year wonders," students who participated in a combined college/medical school program that included only two years of undergraduate study, followed immediately by enrolment in medical school. Many of them had begun their medical education at the age of 19 or 20, and it was one of these students (male) who blurted out, with a sour grimace, "That didn't turn me on at all!"

The hallway fell silent, and one of the oldest female students in the class fixed him with a powerful stare. After a few seconds of burning a hole through him, she walked over and said, her voice thick with disgust, "But you see, boy genius, it's not supposed to. Get it?"

More ...

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=798125