While doing what seemed to be the hundredth physical exam for the day, I was still relatively upbeat as lately, I've been irrepressibly happy.
So in comes Ms. I'm-Better-Than-You (IBTY) for her pre-employment PE.
"Good morning ma'am." I greeted her as she enters.
"Good morning." I didn't mind the why-you-are-talking-to-me-is-beyond-me way with which she said it, and proceeded to do my job.
I was listening to her back when she just started yapping, in her New York-Negros Oriental twang, rather than New-York-City-slang, "...and my father has hypertension, but my mother's side has more of the diabetes, but me, wala, I'm oookay." Just imagine Kris Aquino's patented 'Oh My God' mixed with typical dumb blonde tone and nasal stuffiness.
I just smiled, "Well that's good. You sound like you're from a call center ma'am. But you also sound like you know your medical stuff." I gave up and slung my stethoscope around my neck and sat down to face her. "So tell me, what was your pre-call center course?"
"Well, I'm a nurse!" She exclaimed.
"Ah, ok. I'm a doctor, and what do you need from me today?" I replied with a big smile.
There are so many types of personalities that I've happened to come across in the last couple of years of residency and practice. Most of them, I've found out, are tolerable and I've often took the time to try and teach patients even those who come in for a routine PE. But there are just those that make, medical practice more challenging than it should be.
The type of people that think others, not necessarily just doctors, are beneath them are quite an interesting bunch. Through the years, I've employed the passive aggressive approach to these individuals and found it resoundingly successful and giving me more satisfaction than actually meeting them head on.
My friends have their own nightmare stories:
- A call center agent sought consult at the OPD and bluntly said to the resident on duty, "Doc, don't you know I make more money than you do?"
So?
- A "VIP" patient came in to the ER and asking us to call her father because he would take care of everything. Then call her relative consultant because he would know her as well.
What seems to be the problem?
I had one encounter in the last few days of my residency at the ER triage area.
Ms. Red Eyes had conjunctivitis and came in to get a consult prior to her shift at a call center. Talking in call-center twang, she had berated the nurses at the triage because she wanted to be seen immediately, but there were emergency cases in the ER needing more attention than she did.
I came down to help and caught her profanity-laced tirade and that of her just-as temperamental boyfriend. The nurse asked me if I could see them so that they wouldn't cause any more of a scene than they already were, so I obliged.
It was conjunctivitis and I patiently went through the motions of explaining the possible causes and clinical course, gave her a medical certificate to rest and gave her two sets of ophthalmic drops.
"But doc," she wailed (imagine the Kris combined with Romy and Michelle),"My eyes are so itchy, like is there anything I can take? What do I do for the itchiness?"
After taking so much time to explain to her the cause of the itchiness, and the indications for her drops, I gave up and said, "Well, you can scratch it." Of course, with a big smile.
All doctors are not equal, nor are patients. I really don't see any reason why another person will not be treated as equal if respect is in the equation.
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