Sep
21
Reflection mode…
Last week was a bit strange for me because it was full of psychosocial sessions:
- a seminar on professional conduct (stupid part was that the people who didn’t show up were probably the ones that most needed the lesson);
- a lecture on death and dying which was really interesting from a philosophical viewpoint - also quite topical with all the news about euthanasia in Australia at the moment (Angelique Flowers and her YouTube appeal to Kevin Rudd, Caren Jennings committing suicide etc and QandA on the ABC last Thursday http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/video.htm)
- an interactive session on “Dealing with Bad News” with paid actors playing patients while we went in as ourselves and tried to deal with whatever emotion came out. I’m not sure I’d be very good with the angry patient, but I ended up with the distressed one, which was fine. He cried. I cried. I tried to comfort him, he shared his tissue box with me. It all felt quite real but then again, I went in intending to take full advantage of the experience and not overthink the artifice of the situation. I think I recognised the actor from some Australian drama but I still can’t quite place him.
- I went to practice taking a patient history and ended up talking to a lady with cancer and the history taking turned into a chat; I went back to see her later and lost track of time chatting about life and trying to make her laugh - I won’t disclose any of her details, but I found her story really upsetting and it made me a little sad to think I’m not going to have time for this sort of thing next year as the course gets busier. It was nice to practice being a human being for a while and not a ‘medical professional’ - not that those two things should be separated, and it’s not that we’re taught to do that as such, but there seems to be a big barrier sometimes especially with emotional self-preservation and legal fears. After watching Italian doctors hug and kiss their patients, I think there’s something in that…
- I also had a ‘Personal and Professional Development’ (PPD) interview to discuss the portfolio I had to submit. Basically, the idea was to keep a diary of sorts through the year with thoughts about all things to do with PPD and medicine etc. Good idea in theory to make one reflect on things rather than just let them happen and it was interesting to chat with my interviewer and get her perspective on medicine as a career but, I’m not sure I’m seeing the full value of the process at the moment. It felt quite artificial to me and at the end of it, the interviewer gave something of an assessment of me which was flattering but essentially, methinks, untrue.
