There have been times as a medical student where I have found myself being the support for a patient and trying to comfort them and keep them calm. Today I had one of those moments 😔 #medtwitter #medstudenttwitter
It’s fine. I’m fine except we aren’t trained to do that in any capacity. What’s worse is, at the end of the day, I am just the student, and have no role in the follow-up and continued care of that patient. It’s not my job.
So, after such experiences, we medical students just get left with a whole pile of emotions, thoughts and concerns about the patient and what we just experienced with them. There is no second thought about it because we aren’t part of the treating team.
As students, we care about patients because otherwise we wouldn’t be studying medicine. It’s a privilege to be even a blip on a patient’s radar at such a vulnerable time in their life.
My experiences tells me that we shouldn’t care or no one expects us to care because we are just students. Our role in treating patients is actually not treating at all. Just observe and learn (occasionally do).
But we don’t get taught how to deal with this side of medicine. We aren’t given any training to deal with it. It’s not part of our curriculum or the support the medical school offers its clinical year students. Where is this part of my training?
Right now, I don’t need anything. I’m ok. I just needed to get my thoughts down. So, thank you #medtwitter & #medstudenttwitter for being one way of dealing with these situations. If anyone else has any experiences or thoughts, I would love to hear them.
