Surgery VS Medicine
Today I experienced an orthopaedic ward round at TTSH for the first time in my medical education. Previously, I'd only done medical postings in TTSH.Having just crossed over from Geriatrics in CGH, I noted the differences between the 2 specialities in the way ward rounds were conducted.
And I was APPALLED.
Geriatrics ward round was patient-centred. The doctors asked how the patient was feeling and bothered to listen. A routine physical examination of the cardiovascular, respiratory and abdominal systems are always done. Further examination may be done depending on the present complaints.
In the Orthopaedics ward round today, it was time-centric. We spent a maximum of 5 minutes on each patient, sometimes even 1 minute. In some instances we didn't even see the patient. The check on the patient consisted of asking if the patient was feeling all right that morning (which I suspect was really just a substitute for hello), and then looking at the temperature charts. If the patient was alive, good. We would then move on to the next one.
It's really a culture shock. My friends were telling me, "That's how surgeons are." I still cannot believe it. Doesn't the patient deserve more attention and concern? Afterall they've been through surgery, which for many, constitutes a major event in their lives.
I really hope there are surgeons out there who can actually afford to spend more than 5 minutes on each patient. And I hope the ward round I experienced today was an anomaly. Patients deserve more than what I saw today, and I think we can give them more than that.
Wei Qiang converses @ 18:30
1 Comments:
i totally agree... i think i admire some surgeons for their wonderful surgical skills but sometimes i'm disgusted at their attitudes. there's this lack of humanity sometimes when they talk to their patients, when they do ward rounds, etc.
well, i guess in a way, their definition of care for a patient is more of a practical sort than psychosocial and emotional compared to physicians.
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