The American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) at my school is
really awesome. I’m not just saying that because I’m on the board, but that
fact helps a lot.
Regardless, last year was the first time we put together an
event called the “High Heel-Athon” which was designed to raise money
for a domestic abuse shelter in Chicago. It was a good event in that we raised a lot of
money—over $500. It was not good in the turnout. We got about 14 people, including
board members, which was depressing, at least to me, a lowly M1 who had yet to
realize that medical students are flooded with apathy.
So this year, the president, the ambitious and
awe-inspiring Alice Lee , and I, decided to tone it back a little bit, and have
a High Heel Gala instead. We were going to get a speaker to give a speech,
pertaining to domestic violence and what we as medical students should know,
and how we should aspire to deal with the situation when we became practicing
physicians. We wanted to not only raise awareness, but we also wanted to help our peers become better
physicians.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a speaker, so instead my mother (a professor at the school) suggested we give the presentation ourselves. So we did! And not only
was it really nerve-wracking, it turned out totally amazing. Alice Lee and I
are both creative types, so the presentation looked pretty. Alice Lee talked
loudly and authoritatively, and I rambled somewhat less than usual (I suck at
preparing speeches; “I’ll do it live!”)
Even better, more than twenty people, not including board members, showed up
and many of them said they enjoyed the presentation. So below, for your benefit dear reader, I’ve posted some
of the more informative slides:
Also really cool, we talked to several professors, and they may give this presentation to future students! Which would be great, because domestic violence is so under taught.
I'm really happy that students seemed to get a lot out of our presentation, and I hope that the small difference we made during one lunch period will go on to help many victims of domestic violence who were seeking help from their doctors.
One thing they tell us in law school is that abusers disempower their victims. And, the victims can be further victimized by taking away their agency. So, it's up to you to let them know what all their options are and help them do what they choose so that they can be empowered. So, the hard part is being persuasive without being pushy.
ReplyDeleteExactly Elyse. That's why I really liked the "Validate" slide, because with all medical cases, but especially in these situations, it's incredibly important to center care around the patient. They //know// what's best for them, even if that's hard to elicit, but you have to know that they know more than you do and to take decision making away from the patient just reduces your medical practice to paternalistic behaviors.
ReplyDeleteI liked that last part: "Persuasive without being pushy." You want to assure the patient that domestic violence is not okay and that they should leave the situation, but you want to listen to them and figure out what they are comfortable with, or what they are capable of. This is what separates doctors from the police (police have to do something about domestic violence (pushy) whereas doctors can just listen (and try to be persuasive)). This is one of the reasons why I don't like mandatory reporting laws. Elyse, how do you feel about reporting laws?