I was reading this while waiting for the Journal Club 1pm meeting this afternoon. I finished my rounds and got signed off by Mr Johnston at 9am and I have seen all patients under the team care so I have like 4 hours to waste before the Journal Club meeting then I can scram off from the hospital. So the best place to do that is definitely the library. I spent almost 2 hours on the case write-ups (which are still not finished, shame on me), then drilling the Surgical Recall for about an hour or so, then I go dizzy. After my coffee break of the morning, suddenly I saw this book on the shelf.
[How to Get Out of the Hospital Alive by Dr Sheldon Blau]
It's basically about the basic, tiny errors that happen in the hospitals that often lead to catastrophic damage. Mistakes can easily happen, with the miscommunication between patients and hospital staff. Or it's just that sometimes the patients loss their autonomy once they are wearing those skimpy and bare-back-to-the-bottom hospital gowns.
Like how the nurses mistakenly take a patient for another, which lead to wrong drug prescriptions, or the doctors too busy and tired and ghostly that they missed sth crucial about the patients, or even the patients who are just ignorant they dont care what those people are giving them, neither do they know anything about drug allergies or such. How people see hospital as place so clean so sterile and havenly from accidents and illnesses, when the fact is that it is a haven for bacteria and viruses and source of infections by anything under the sun beneath the shining and gleaming surfaces and the reek of alcohol swabs all over the place. Do you know how many patients died of nosocomial infections? Google it and you'll be amazed at the numbers shown. Or else why is it possible that I had 2 norovirus attacks in a month? That's evidence, right? Haha.
This book is just telling how patient should be more in-charge and aware and appreciate themselves in the hospital, to help the staff avoiding any mistakes. It's a very interesting read. The writer is witty and yet sensible, emphatic and I love his style of writing.
Hmmm. Penat la cakap omputih. Cakap Melayu pulak. Hehe.
Anyway, buku ni best. Tapi tak sempat nak abes baca pun. Han han.. gatal. Buku sekolah tak hadam lagi, tapi sibuk nak baca buku lain. But, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, kan?
But it's kelakar kadang-kadang bila fikir betapa berbezanya hidup di luar dan dalam hospital. Terutamanya bagi kami yang budak medic yang duduk dan berkawan-kawan secara tak berkembang. So we keep using the medicine lingo without really noticing that we are speaking different languages. One of my roomies is a budak chemistry. She always goes like, 'err, what does that mean' when kitorang bersembang sesama budak medic. Padahal kami rasa dah terbaik kami bercakap dalam bahasa paling neutral. Kahkahkah. Patutlah kami mempunyai exam yang bertajuk 'communication station' yang merangkumi penerangan kepada patient tentang keadaan mereka dalam laymen terms, where kami berusaha bersungguh-sungguh menterjemah all the jargons to English. Lawak kan? Yes, kamilah bahan lawak dalam station tu. Anyways, kami dah pun pass exam tu. So things arent that bad, kan?
So people, just be aware when you go to the hospital okay? Especially when you are the one yang terbaring on the bed. When somebody come to you, make sure the person is an eligible doctor. Dont settle for medical doctor assistant. Never. Get a REAL doctor.
Let me just give some tips in comprehensible syllables:
- When after examining you, they say 'unimpressive' it means 'I don't know what's going on with you'.
- When they ask you to stay for observation, it's translated as : 'I don't have any idea what the fish is wrong with you and I might be wrong to say you are okay so I am just keeping you here so I won't be blamed if I am wrong and screwed this up.'
- When you ask something from the nurse and she say she'll look what she can do, be persistent with your request or else she'll just disappear.
- Phlebotomists = vampires. They go around sucking up peoples' blood into thousands little bottles with colourful tips using various sizes of needles.
- Warfarin is the blood thinning agent used in patients usually with cardiovascular conditions. But it is also used as rat poison because it causes the blood vessels in the rats' brain to rupture and hence lead to their deaths.
- Never be afraid or intimidated by the doctors, nurses or any of the staff if you have something to ask of say.
But anyhow, while claiming your autonomy rights, just be careful dont stress out the doctors and nurses unnecessarily. Kesian kat diorang kan, overworked almost of the time.
And last but not least, as much as possible, try to stay away from the hospital. And like they say, an apple a day keeps the doctors away.
Haha, ended up cakap omputih gak. Beg your pardon.
Sekian, selamat menjaga kesihatan.
[i was there this morning when my consultant was breaking a bad news to a patient. this poor lady was just diagnosed with advance colon cancer with distant mets to the liver and vertebrae. she was very upset i couldnt bear to look at her face all morning. it was very sad and i dont know how to be emphatic without being sympathetic, or to care without dissociating. guess i'm just a spring chicken or even a babe in the woods. ]
