acceptance
Over these years, I’ve started to realize that I’m not naturally a curious person. I accept what I’m told without much consideration, and I don’t evaluate what I’m told as much as I should. I think this really contributes to my gullibility because I accept easily and trust easily.
Today in my Lit class, my professor gave us a hypothetical situation. If a medical resident asked you to come and feel a patient’s uterus/ovaries while the patient’s anesthetized because you could feel it more easily when the patient’s relaxed than when the patient’s awake, would you do it?
Quite honestly, I would. It’s experience, and it does not harm to the patient. But then, we talked about patient consent and different situations, and then we read a short story about a girl who induced an abortion. She poured potassium permanganate onto her uterus, essentially burning her vagina. The emergency room doctor didn’t even look at her and passed her off to gynecology. The gynecology resident looked at her, called her a bitch, and then told the intern to feel her uterus because she was still pregnant and it would be an opportunity for the medical student to finally feel what a pregnant uterus feels like. The student didn’t touch the patient, apologized, and left. In this scenario, it’s painfully obvious that this is not only inappropriate but also violates the patient on so many levels.
The importance of patient consent, even if it’s for something that wouldn’t affect the patient and would improve you as a doctor, has become much more obvious to me after today.
