The Human Model

You can learn a lot from patients.

Sometime last week I went over to the Hospital of Veteran's Affairs to volunteer at a clinic. The clinic is submerged into the homeless shelter at the VA. We were instructed to take patient's histories, a skill we all learned as part of our Essentials of Clinical Reasoning course. I was uncomfortable at first, but it's always surprising how human-like human patients can be.

Regardless, one of the people I saw was a fellow diabetic. While the people running the show scrambled around looking for an appropriate test meter (because I do not know how to use the really fancy ones; OneTouch meter's are always full of extraneous options that I can't work), I got to talk to the patient.

Somehow we got onto the topic of significant others, and the diabetic had some wise words to say about the ills of domestic violence. He said two really touching things. The first was a rather hilarious anecdote about the only time he had hit a girl. It was in high school, and he had slapped his girlfriend, thinking to himself that she was acting like a b*#$!. Well, he had not been counting on being held accountable. Coming home, he was greeted by his seven sisters and his affronted girlfriend. They did more than "explain" why his behavior was out of line.

Second thing: he expounded on why women are ultimately the more important gender. I was fairly impressed, and I keep thinking about what a character that diabetic was. I want to write more about him, or at the very least, write down what he said so I can tell my own kids how to avoid domestic violence in relationships. Honestly, I don't think he learned anything from me. But I ended up learning a lot from him.

Another strike against paternalism. Perhaps the doctor-patient relationship is more like a symbiotic relationship, where both groups are made better through their interaction. Regardless, I feel like I could write a chapter on the character that this patient presented, even if briefly--even if less than twenty-minutes.

This is why I went into medicine.

I want to learn more about the human condition. I can't write about people if I do not understand them, first. Certainly that's not only the reason I am in medical school. But for the part of me that is a writer, that's all the motivation I need.