They are doing it with my insurance company right now.
And there is some sort of form I fill out every time at
the RD's which is basically a detailed follow of how
you are feeling monthly. A doctor that has a clue is
going to be a great doctor. As long as I am not
exhausted and too sick to help, I will be doing what I
can to train the new ones coming along.
Duckie

i think this would be great, IF it included teaching the md residents to pay
attention to the patient's own agenda about his or her needs and his or her
own body.  too often doctors become fixated on their agendas for their
patients and it is frustrating to the patient.  it's not just "listening
skills" either, that need to be taught.  it's also respect for a patient's
intelligence, physical awarenesses and what the patients want for
themselves.

ie . . . i wanted a cervical anesthetic to relieve neck disc pain and maybe
relieve other symptoms.  so i asked my pcp.  instead, my pcp focused on and
wanted me to do upper body weight lifting to strengthen my bones, because
she discovered my bone density is waning.  excuse me?   i used to start
collapsing in pain when butch would lightly put his arms on my shoulders to
give me a kiss and carrying a single plastic grocery bag caused my legs turn
to rubber.  with 17 disks in various stages of degeneration, from bulging to
torn and leaking anuluses, how is weight lifting not going to aggravate
those disc situations? (purely rhetorical, i know it would aggravate them)
i'm sure she just got fixated on bone density.  tunnel vision, couldn't see
or hear anything else, besides her own agenda for me.  it's so frustrating.
oh, i think i just decided to refer myself to a back specialist.LOL
frustrated sigh . . .
kate

It is always interesting to me to see how the medical field changes and
progresses.
Recently I got in the mail a booklet from our local University Hospital.
This of course is a large teaching hospital, and like many others, I am
sure, they have their medical students go out into the pulic (with those
who have volunteered to do so), and learn basic patient interviewing
skills. They also have a program where you can play the part of the
patient in the medical schools "clinic" and the medical student will
interview you, do a basic exam, etc and try to come up with a diagnosis
and what the treatment should be or what additional testing would be
appropriate. This is all for the very beginning medical students,
and more than likely this type of thing is done in most major medical
schools.

Well, the booklet I got in the mail is for a new program they are
starting for some of the more advanced medical students and they ask
anyone willing to sign up for this new program be willing to commit to a
2 year commitment. They are primarily looking for patients that have
chronic health issues such as asthma, diabetes, arthritis, high blood
pressure, etc.

In the program, you are assigned to 2 medical students who you will meet
with about 4 times a year at your home to discuss how your chronic
health issues affect your everyday life. They also would like the
med students to go to some of your doctor visits with you to see how you
interact with your doctors and to see how your chronic health issues
affect your relationship with your doctors.

Interesting!!! Seems kind of nice that the medical establishment is
finally looking a bit more into how all these illnesses really truly
affect a person in their day to day life. I would guess that the medical
students might come away from this process with a whole different view
of things.

The interesting thing to me, though, is I wonder how their instructors
will grade them on this and how much the instructors themselves may
learn from this new project/program!

Would this be something that any of you would be willing to sign up for
if it was offered to you at your local teaching hospial?

What if any concerns might you have about this project/program???

Donna G

I'd do it, possibly in part because Mike was part of program that used local
actors to feign patients with health problems for a while and he enjoyed
doing it and thought it was really making a difference.  Also, I've worked
long enough at teaching hospitals that I can handle med students!  LOL  You
probably can too, having been apatient at a teaching hospital as much as you
have.

what recourse do you have if one (or both) of the students is a real
idiot/fool, whether to the degree that you want those in charge of the
program or, worst case scenario, you never want said student to darken your
door again.