Show and tell

Emily Yoffe has a column with Slate called "Human Guinea Pig" where she goes around and does stuff that us normal folks probably wouldn't sign up for, if we had options. And everyone has options? Right? That is correct.

She became a standardized patient for a bit. Her duties were letting second-year med students give her their first physical exams. She held all of the aspiring doctors in high regard and had fun watching them fumble nervously.

Before standardized patients there was this:

I talked to a 50-ish physician friend about my experiences, and he said when he was in medical school and it was time for the first rectal/genital exam, the students were told to pair off and examine each other. "So, do you pick someone you like, or someone you don't like?" he recalled. "Either way, it's lose-lose."

None of the doctors I have ever been too have shown any hint of their human side. They go through the process with a perfunctory attitude, and rightfully so. I can see why it'd be even more awkward to chitchat and blithely think out loud for the sake of easing any supposed tension hanging over the room.

Sometimes it was hard for the student not to laugh. Shy and mousy Dr. B, after peering into my eyes and ears, said, "Now I have to look up your nose!" and let out an embarrassed snort.

Playing Doctor

I never offer any awesome insight from these blog posts. My blog is a vacuous show-and-tell. I promise I'll do something about it.