Short, but quite needed post today:

I received this piece today from a resident who happened to also be the loved one of a patient. I would like to share this piece of advice with you since (a) it is so true, (b) it needs to be elevated from being “a tip” to being ingrained in every human being entering healthcare, and (c) if you heed this advice you will stand out in a big, big way.

Here is what he/she submitted for you today:

1. Try to approach your patients as if they are, in fact, people…as opposed to “a case”. Far too often people are treated as interesting cases rather than a individuals who need help.

2. Don’t forget to educate your patients. Some physicians get caught up in rounds and teaching residents that they forget to teach their patients! Helping them medically involves educating them as well (Why do you think show’s like Dr. Oz and the Doctors are popular?…people want to know!!!)

Are you a patient, a caregiver, a nurse? Give some advice to young doctors here.

I just posted another video to YouTube… This one is the second video in the RookieDoctor.com series on Residency Horror Stories. You might be wondering where the first one is… Well, it’s a little long and has some embarrassing information in it, so it’s only available to members. (Yes, even more embarrassing than this video.)

In this video you get to see how I screwed up telling someone that they were dying. Horror for me… but, good for you, because I extract several important lessons from this story for you. In fact, that’s the very reason I’m sharing these horror stories with you… You can take the good and leave the bad and it’s told to you in a way that you won’t forget… a story.

So please take this stuff with you through your clinical training years and apply it. You will be a better doctor for it and, of course, your patients will benefit too.

I would really appreciate your comments… You don’t have to tell me how much of an idiot I was, though I learned my lesson… Hopefully you learned my lesson too.

Anyway, let me know what you thought about the video and if you have any horror stories of your own. There’s many more where this one came from… but thankfully not all from me.

If you submit any stories about your training or someone else’s please do not include patient identifiers or institutional identifiers. Of course, if you do, I’ll remove them from the story and I will alter some of the details for the sake of anonymity and privacy. But if you share your stories, others might benefit from the lessons.