As a teacher with a master’s degree in secondary education, it is assumed that parents are putting their trust in me and my abilities to educate their children. A person who is going to become a doctor must attend four years of schooling followed by a residency and/or fellowship. This could take someone an additional number of years to complete but it is assumed that the patients are trusting that the doctor gained the appropriate knowledge to treat their patients. I will probably rub some people the wrong way when I start this analogy but I have heard it so many times as a teacher.
When a student does not perform well on a standardized exam like a regents exam, blame is generally placed on the teacher. It is the teachers fault that this student did not learn the necessary information or gain the necessary skills to be successful on a state exam but, what happens when a patient does not survive a procedure or is involved in a car accident and does not survive? Do we blame the doctor in this case? If the doctor claims that she or he did “everything they could” to save the patient, then we accept what happens for the most part and move on. Maybe the doctor did make a small mistake, possibly makes it through a legal battle and ends of keeping his/her license; they still practice medicine.
In education, teachers are evaluated and rated on how students perform on an exam but are student circumstances considered when they are taking that test? Did they have breakfast that morning? Did they get enough sleep the night before? Were they able to be in school everyday to learn the material? I would be considered an ineffective teacher if a bunch of my students failed their regents; I could even lose my job because I did not have large percentage of students passing. Maybe a teacher’s lesson one day is not amazing and the students really struggled with the material. It would be the teacher’s responsibility to go back, reflect on what happened, and potentially re-teach the material. Should doctors be given a second or third chance if a patient doesn’t survive? I guess unfortunately in medicine, the answer is yes.
Sean’s visit with the gastroenterologist in mid-2016 got us nowhere other than finding out there was really nothing wrong other than a hiatal hernia. During the following months, he had just got a new job working for Apple and was in the process of switching insurance companies. His new insurance would not kick in until February 2017. It was within the next few weeks of new insurance that we would go seek a second option to the pain and discomfort he was experiencing. A call to my parent’s gastroenterologist was going to be a 6-week wait but a new doctor who had recently joined the practice had an opening sooner and so we jumped on that opportunity.
A young female doctor, around our age, greeted us and listened to Sean’s situation and read over the notes that were provided by the first doctor that we visited. She came up with some dietary suggestions first to gather her own understanding what what Sean was going through. He stuck to the diets and suggestions but nothing improved. Upon reporting back to the gastroenterologist, she suggested that a colonoscopy be performed to just rule out any other potential problems such as Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn’s Disease. Nothing could have prepared me for the news that came after that appointment.
Ruff Reflections 