tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1809371631407381115.post1066572161929676426..comments2024-03-28T10:32:27.517+03:00Comments on Stories from the trauma bay: Gross anatomyDocBastardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12224592098492491365noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1809371631407381115.post-10289014935286495902012-12-18T01:55:53.176+02:002012-12-18T01:55:53.176+02:00You know, reading entries like this always makes m...You know, reading entries like this always makes me think about the difference in education between doctors and nurses and how it seems to reflect or even shape the attitudes of both professions. I'm saying this as a nursing student in a bachelor's program who is about to graduate in May. <br /><br />It's just funny to me how one's the reverse of the other. I can tell you now how (in general terms, obviously) how to treat people with a lot of different diseases. I can name a ton of drugs and what they do. I took anatomy, physiology, microbiology, pharmacology... I didn't take organic chemistry because my school didn't require it, but I know that some nursing schools do require two semesters of organic chemistry at the baccalaureate level. It seems like there are at least some similarities on the surface, but before I took any of the upper-level nursing courses I was thrown into patient rooms knowing absolutely nothing about their diagnoses beyond what I had hurriedly been able to glean out of the textbook or the internet while doing pre-planning paperwork the night before clinical. That was in my very first week of the upper division of nursing school. <br /><br />By the time I graduate, I will have had so much hands-on patient care experience that any sort of residency is optional. One reason I point this out comes back to the gross anatomy course. I will be taking one within the next three years, if all goes well. My first-choice school where I intend to study to become a nurse anesthetist requires it. I will be very surprised indeed if there's much of the awkwardness you and your classmates experienced from the CRNA students, who after finishing their 1-2 years of critical care experience will have likely seen countless deaths. For medical students, it seems like a lot of the time the first exposure to a new disease, treatment, or even death happens in a controlled setting such as a classroom or laboratory. The human element of the diseases seem to be temporarily removed. As a nursing student, I have participated in codes and provided postmortem care. There is nothing scary or strange about dead bodies anymore, at least not for me, and it was a very rare occasion indeed when I had learned about a disease prior to having a patient with that disease.<br /><br />It sort of makes me wonder if the reason that nurses are the "caring" profession and physicians are generally much more "clinical" is our differing routes of learning information. Does throwing a person in a hospital room with a real patient on the first day breed empathy? Does learning about diseases and their effects on the human body in a classroom instead of while observing the effects of the diseases in person breed aloofness?<br /><br />Obviously, not every physician fits the stereotype of the aloof health care provider more interested in the disease than the person, but it seems like more physicians fit that mold than nurses. I am always grateful to come across physicians like you who care about their patients as people, but I have met a lot of them who don't.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1809371631407381115.post-90875741044447328632012-12-17T17:32:36.538+02:002012-12-17T17:32:36.538+02:00Thank you for sharing your experience and thank yo...Thank you for sharing your experience and thank you for what you said about Rose. I am curious, however, what would cause a liver to turn green...just so I never do that. *shudders*Sabrielswolfehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15916773443272686077noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1809371631407381115.post-79280691797517212402012-12-16T11:57:04.406+02:002012-12-16T11:57:04.406+02:00Thank you so much for sharing! Formaldehyde always...Thank you so much for sharing! Formaldehyde always leave me hungry after a session in the labs... <br />Shufty93https://www.blogger.com/profile/06787470568497614921noreply@blogger.com