|
Poked And Prodded Again And Again
PREFACE: Patients and doctors alike revere the blend of empathy, communication, and authority that is universally called "bedside manner." None of us receives medical care without reflecting on the demeanor of the physicians who care for us and their ability to instruct and console us. Yet teaching bedside manner has proved difficult. Although precise methods for teaching and testing students’ acquired medical knowledge have been developed, the staples of teaching about doctor-patient relationships have long remained exhortation and (not always good) role modeling. During recent decades, this shortcoming has been rectified in large part by adopting a novel teaching technique in medical schools: the standardized patient. Barbara Ucko, who works as a standardized patient, writes that her role feels akin to being an unappointed medical faculty member and reveals what it’s like from her perspective as a patient. Steven Wartman, a nationally noted medical educator, describes his mother’s evolution from an overdoctored patient to a zealous and effective actress-patient. Taken together, these stories chronicle a quiet revolution in medical education.
UNDER NORMAL CONDITIONS, few things make me feel more vulnerable than sitting in a doctor’s office wearing only a hospital gown. Gone are my funky clothes and handmade jewelry that show who I am. All that’s left is a quiet, middle-aged woman feeling anonymous and exposed.
There are times, however, when I am gowned and seated on an examining table that I feel far from vulnerable. In those instances, I’m in a small, windowless room on the sixth floor of the George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. That’s the location of GW’s Office of Interdisciplinary Medical
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
