When you’re in medical school, people outside of school think that you’re some kind of expert. On the one hand, it’s flattering that people think that I have this extensive knowledge about the human body and all of its intricacies (to an extent I do), but I’m by no means an expert! Family and friends start asking for advice about things that I have no expertise in. For instance, my sister pointed at this lesion on her neck and asked “What do you think this is?” And honestly, I had no idea. It looked like a bug bite to me. But it also struck me that I didn’t really know what bug bites present as! I politely dodged giving a concrete answer.
I wonder if this happens to physicians–especially ones that are super specialized. If you’re some kind of neurologist and a family member asks you about some derm problem, are you really going to know what’s going on? At this point in time, I don’t think I would! Part of me would feel inadequate because I didn’t know the answer, but part of me would probably feel a twinge of annoyance. It’s not my field! How and why should I know?
When we become professionals we often become so knowledgeable about a certain subject that we lose our drive to learn other things. While this is understandable to an extent, I really hope that whatever field of medicine I choose to go into gives me the opportunity to learn other things!
Dear Wasiq, My age-59, & Dr. “himself”, PCP-65, (been his patient 8+ys). He’s not Dr. Specialist, but I am my own health-self-expert, a living example of knowledge having been myself all 59 yrs. You’re open-minded thoughtful awareness is relief to me; I will not strangle my doctor, but his “I’m Dr.Expert of all Medical on Earth. The wiser I get, the more he stubbornly disagrees. I tell both his nurse and then him exactly how I feel & what I need that day. “No, that isn’t possible, delivers a diagnosis of “Analogy of Ambiguous Opposite of the real cause of my health condition. Tell the truth, “I don’t know what that is and refer your patient sister friend or neighbor to the Specialist with an attitude like yours. I will be in a couple research trials at or near the NIH. Senior citizens need doctors of whole-mindfulness human heart. I am happier with human heart vs an RX! Thanks Dr.Dignity