The Medical Field: Behind the Scenes

                                       


Wesley Desselle, Surgeon of Hellen Keller Hospital, spoke to us in Honors Forum last week. He preached the human values of learning medicine, and informed us students, especially including, but not limited to, nursing students that the medical field is not always pretty.


He exemplified this by first introducing an image from the nine-season hit TV show, Grey's Anatomy. The image paints the picture of gory glory, showing each member of the medical surgeon team gathered around a patient, pumping blood from his heart (basically saving his life, fabulously). Immediately following this fantasized fiction, Dr. Desselle slapped a picture of a man's private area with something like skin grafts on the inner thigh. Next came a rather...nausea-invoking illustration of a rotting foot, belonging to a man who had stepped on a nail. Dr. Desselle's point was that the medical field can often be grueling, and does not always live up to the glitz and glamour television and society in general makes it out to be.


(Personally, I found this rather funny. I saw quite a few nursing majors repressing a quick baby barf as they saw the pictures... Good luck with that career choice!).


But more so than the graphic view of medicine and being a doctor, what struck me were the pros and cons of being a doctor.


The pros, of course, are the satisfaction of helping people, contributing the community you live in and maybe on a more selfish note, the salary.


The cons involve so much more personal details, that I am convinced I could never be a doctor or surgeon. What Dr. Desselle failed to display from Grey's Anatomy is the other side of the show, (the personal one) that proves the sacrifices each doctor has to make for his or her career. *Though doctors earn a decent income, they are often in debt. Doctors also have to make time for family, which is almost impossible to do. Doctors are scheduled for certain work hours, of course, but they have days where they are never off duty. They are on-call and have to stay in the hospital overnight to get any rest. Grey's Anatomy does provide this information. Because of the commitment doctors give to their careers, families are often deprived of the attention they need. Relationships in general lack the growth and support they need, because relationships are a two-way street. Nobody can invest 100% effort while the other person gives nothing. Successful relationships, whether it be friendships, families, dating or marriages, requires equal partnership and work for everyone.


This makes the medical field a little less attractive to me as my own career choice, but it also makes me respect those who will be doctors, greatly.
*I myself am not quite sure why this happens, but it was one of the problems Desselle mentioned, so it is thus included.

Grey's Anatomy Cast

Severe Plaque Psoriasis Victim
(the not-so-pretty side)



“As doctors, we’re trained to be skeptical, because patients lie to us all the time. The rule is, every patient is a liar until proven honest. Lying is bad. Or so we are told constantly from birth. Honesty is the best policy, the truth shall set you free, I chopped down the cherry tree. Whatever. The fact is, lying is a necessity. We lie to ourselves because the truth… the truth freaking hurts.” -Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy