2008 Woodie Awards
Who really cares for your health?
Patients are treated as numbers
Kristen Barrett
Issue date: 10/19/06 Section: opinion
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Let me start off by saying "no offense to nursing or pre-med majors" because I would hope that those of you who become nurses and doctors would not treat your patients in the way I continuously feel that these "professionals" act in their practices. Whether the patient goes to a health center or the hospital doctor offices, visits have become increasingly shorter, and the patient is treated like a number. After consistently seeing myself go through this and hearing from others that people have been misdiagnosed whether in health centers or elsewhere, it has become a significant concern and frustration for students. When people are away from home and need health care, it is a complicated process at times to get any aid with even the minor ailments of a cold.
Telling their patients the worst seems the easy way out to ensure that if something worse was missed, they would be saving themselves from a sort of malpractice. Last semester I was misdiagnosed with something worse and given a prescription that didn't help. When I went to my family doctor, I was given a real diagnosis and prescription that was beneficial, however, I was still treated so quickly that I was a little nervous that they could have missed something.
Through research of the United States' malpractice suits, there have been an estimated 50 percent of trials against surgeons and doctors which only represented 75 of the largest counties in the US. According to the article, "Malpractice - Medical Malpractice Statistics" by Michael Russell, on EzineArticles, an additional 33% percentof malpractice trials have been against non surgical physicians, and of all of these trials, only 27 percent of them have been won by plaintiffs in the same 75 counties of the United States. Yet another significant statistic that appears is that even interns are not protected from malpractice suits because over 1500 cases were filed against them last year alone.
This goes to show that nurses and doctors in the many areas of medicine are "getting it wrong." It makes me wonder "why does this happen?" Recently, a friend of mine at a different school, went through the same horrifying process and experience of being misdiagnosed with such an embarrassing symptom - bed bugs. She decided to do her own research online to review the symptoms of bed bugs, and it was documented that "bites and bumps" would be all over the body, not just on her arm like she had. Turns out they were only bug bites, and it took the exterminator examining her bed to tell her that not a doctor! When visiting a doctor, it seems that getting a second opinion is necessary, especially if the doctor is not your usual health care professional.
Telling their patients the worst seems the easy way out to ensure that if something worse was missed, they would be saving themselves from a sort of malpractice. Last semester I was misdiagnosed with something worse and given a prescription that didn't help. When I went to my family doctor, I was given a real diagnosis and prescription that was beneficial, however, I was still treated so quickly that I was a little nervous that they could have missed something.
Through research of the United States' malpractice suits, there have been an estimated 50 percent of trials against surgeons and doctors which only represented 75 of the largest counties in the US. According to the article, "Malpractice - Medical Malpractice Statistics" by Michael Russell, on EzineArticles, an additional 33% percentof malpractice trials have been against non surgical physicians, and of all of these trials, only 27 percent of them have been won by plaintiffs in the same 75 counties of the United States. Yet another significant statistic that appears is that even interns are not protected from malpractice suits because over 1500 cases were filed against them last year alone.
This goes to show that nurses and doctors in the many areas of medicine are "getting it wrong." It makes me wonder "why does this happen?" Recently, a friend of mine at a different school, went through the same horrifying process and experience of being misdiagnosed with such an embarrassing symptom - bed bugs. She decided to do her own research online to review the symptoms of bed bugs, and it was documented that "bites and bumps" would be all over the body, not just on her arm like she had. Turns out they were only bug bites, and it took the exterminator examining her bed to tell her that not a doctor! When visiting a doctor, it seems that getting a second opinion is necessary, especially if the doctor is not your usual health care professional.