Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Pinpointing the transition from human to doctor
"When they embark on the journey to become physicians, most students are enthusiastic, filled with idealism and a genuine intention to serve those in need of help," says a new study in Academic Medicine. What happens to them, you wonder? The study authors did too, so they set out to analyze the loss of empathy in a group of medical students.
Turns out empathy takes a big hit during the third year of medical school, when the students start really interacting with patients. And no, it's not just because real patients are more obnoxious and difficult than hypotheticals. Researchers attribute the problem to a number of factors, including a lack of role models, too much to learn, lack of sleep, technology and a focus on the science of medicine. The article suggests several methods for teaching empathy to med students (including keeping them away from the really obnoxious patients) and calls on medical educators to take action.
"Most of us in medical education advocate empathy, but the effect of simply advocating empathy without embracing it and living with it, and without implementing targeted programs to enhance it, is analogous to singing a lovely song only in one's own mind without others ever enjoying it!"
Labels: medical education
posted by Stacey Butterfield at
6:00 PM
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American Journal of Medicine
Also known as the Green Journal, the American Journal of Medicine publishes original clinical articles of interest to physicians in internal medicine and its subspecialities, both in academia and community-based practice.
Clinical Correlations
A collaborative medical blog started by Neil Shapiro, ACP Member, associate program director at New York University Medical Center's internal medicine residency program. Faculty, residents and students contribute case studies, mystery quizzes, news, commentary and more.
db's Medical Rants
Robert M. Centor, FACP, contributes short essays contemplating medicine and the health care system.
Everything Health
EverythingHealth is designed to address the rapid changes in science, medicine, health and healing in the 21st Century.
Getting Better with Dr. Val
Getting Better is the continuation of Dr. Val Jones' previous blog at Revolution Health. It is devoted to helping people understand health issues from a balanced, scientifically sound perspective.
HealthHombre
A roundup of health policy news drawn from a database of hundreds of Web sites.
Interact MD
Michael Benjamin, ACP member, doesn't accept industry money so he can create an independent, clinician-reviewed space on the Internet for physicians to report and comment on the medical news of the day.
Kevin, MD
The alter ego of Kevin Pho, ACP Member, is the closest thing to royalty in the medical blog world.
LSUHSC-S Medical Library Evidence Alert
Major guidelines, systematic reviews, meta-analyses and/or major reviews by national and international organizations.
PLoS Blog
The Public Library of Science's open access materials include a blog.
White Coat Rants
One of the most popular anonymous blogs written by a doctor.
1 Comments:
It is a challenge to retain one's humanity in the medical arena after years of practice. It can be done, but a physician's humanity needs to be nurtured and guarded. There are many forces in medical world that threaten it. Practicing amidst medical malpractice threats, and oppressive insurance company bureaucracy, declining reimbursements, etc., can distract us from our mission, if we let them. There's a reason that so many of our patients have come to believe that medicine is a business and that caring beside manners are harder to find. Medical training programs need to prepare young physicians better for some of the realities that await them. www.MDWhistleblower.blogspot.com
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