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| How I feel when I don't know an obvious answer my character would know. [Fox Caught in a Trap via wikimedia] |
Dear faculty: when you write a case and are picking professions for your patients, I beg you, do not make me or any of my family members a medical professional/student. It just leads to questions that are difficult for me to answer, like...
- Did you try anything for the pain? (As an SP, unless scripted the answer is "no" which hardly makes sense for most patients, much less a medical professional)
- What do you/your family member think is going on? (It is unusual for a case to contain this information, but answering "I have no idea" makes me sound like a terrible medical professional.)
- What was your MCAT score? (I don't even know the right scale!)
- Oh, what classes are you taking? (Ummm. Anatomy?)
- Oh, what hospital are you working at? (Uh....)
- Oh, your XYZ muscle? ("I'm not sure; it's been a while since I've had to study anatomy. Ha ha!")
- What specialty? (Quick, pick one this student is unlikely to know a lot about!)
&etc.
Having a medical connection makes a student waste valuable time by asking me questions I have to invent the answers to, which could lead to either leading them down the wrong path OR corroding the veracity of the encounter when I am unable to improvise inappropriately. My main technique is to deflect, but even that can seem suspicious, as it is normal for people to build rapport based on similarities.
In addition, when I am written as a medical professional I can't just act like another patient. For instance, I feel I can't evaluate jargon as well because my character already understand the language. I would not be surprised by a mini mental status exam, or many physical exams, or unclear instructions. So feedback about items like that will be necessarily limited from a patient perspective.
Setting the Standard
Unless a case is meant to be interprofessional, keep SP jobs related to the chief complaint/injury or neutral. Pick one that is not highly intriguing to students.
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