Welcome to the Ideal Medical Care Blog ~ where politics, health care, and humanity intersect ~ your home for intelligent, provocative commentary on the movement to achieve ideal care for all. Inspired? I welcome your comments.
Pamela Wible MD
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Thanks Pamela for leading the way toward ideal medical care!
In gratitude,
Bodhi
Hi Pamela (and followers)
As a 44 year old changing careers in to nursing, people ask me, “Why?” I have yet to fully narrow that down to a simple sentence, but viewing the world as a giant triage unit, I simply want to focus my attention where there is the greatest need, where I can do the most good. Now that my children are all but grown, that place is medicine.
Accompanying my desire for maximum impact is the reality of my own physical degeneration, which I sometimes fin impossible to ignore. I must face the challenges of an aging nurse even before my career begins. It impacts the focus of my education and will play a great part in the specialty I choose. Without a doubt, med/surg is out, since I have already noticed that a 240 pound man is viewed as the resident Superman, called for every change, turn and transfer. Even paying special attention to body mechanics, there is sometimes no good way to maneuver a 400 pound bilateral BKA with exacerbated COPD. Logically, I look to the OR, ER, and clinical medicine.
Oddly, I have found that the Public Health Service, a branch of the uniformed services, offers excellent care to some of the most under-served populations, without the assembly line pressures of for-profit medicine. How is that possible? How can our government train, equip, and support an agency devoted entirely to care without regard for profit? They chose to. Those who are employed by the agency are given full health benefits and work toward a federal pension. It presses me to ask, “Why do we not treat ALL health care workers this way?” My friends working in government clinics in the Philippines and Brazil tell me they work under similar arrangements.
OK, I didn’t begin this comment as an endorsement of PHS, but as I network with doctors and nurses, I hear similar comments- “I just want to provide care.” “I am not looking to get rich, but need to pay my loans and provide for my family.”
There are certainly many organizations out there where one can lend her/his passion and expertise, but how many of them are designed respond and meet the needs of a medical professional offering a lifetime commitment? Few.
So, as I am FULLY on board with you, Pamela, ready to go where I am most needed and give my all, I want to make sure I will not be cast aside when my body can no longer do the job. I am most interested in models where health care becomes a circle of service, where the servant becomes the served, and would welcome your thoughts.
I do not have experience with the Public Health Service, but your description sounds wonderful. Unlike pilots (who have to retire at 60), docs can work until “death do us part.” I love medicine and I’m in it for the long haul. That is the beauty of medicine, especially the cognitive specialties – like primary care. . .
I think what you are doing is fantastic. There truly should be more physicians like you. I have worked as a nurse for 21 years and have seen my share of doctors that move through patients as if they were in a cattle line. Frankly, it is down right sad….
I had actually applied to med school and was accepted. To make a long story short, I didn`t continue on to medical school but decided instead to remain in nursing. In nursing there is more of an opportunity to form a therapeutic relationship with the patient and I personally believe that it is essential for providing exceptional care.
On a personal level, I have been blessed with a wonderful family physician. She is simply a kindhearted soul that genuinely cares. Patients are not fools and they can clearly tell whether their doctor truly cares or not.
If all physicians had the same attitude as you, the world would most certainly be a wonderful place. I wish you the best of luck as you continue to work against an assembly line approach to health care.
Take care of yourself and keep up the great work!
Pamela, on your comments down the page, in Feb as I recall, on pt privacy, you omitted the problem that office copy machines save a copy of everything copied — on its hard drive. More problems with privacy when the hospital or doc office sells/recycles the machine.
Really? I don’t delete anything except spam. You are spot on regarding the widely-unknown risk to privacy of copy machine hard drives.
I wish there were more caring doctors like you. I was a herby 56 year old when I was told I needed gall bladder surgery. 3 years later I have mabsorption, incontinence, heart disease, hair loss, vascular disease, unable to taste or swallow and being last around the health care system totally drained, weak. Sore throat for 6 months, told by Ent vocal chord eroded by acid, referred to Gastro she said she sees nothing in throat–severe gastritis in stomach did not compare with prior exam. Primary wants to give me sleeping pills, morphine. I don’t want any of that. I want what I had—a life without pain, where I can breathe (nose broken during intubation and dried out) lift more than 5 pounds, work, play golf, swim. The dry skin and rashes and deformity caused by this surgery and the surgeon not owning up to his mistakes leave me disenchanted. Saw a compassionate internal med/rhemotologist and she thinks I have wound botulism. However blood work still not in and I struggle each day. I wanted to get to mayo clinic early on and male pcp did not fill out properly. My neck so swollen now I don’t know what to do. Stomach constantly churns. Afraid to travel far as always need a rest room. Note bowels were not functioning after surgery told to live on laxatives. After chelation they are running soft. I live in 08723 area code and I am wondering if there is some center for multiple ailments where I should go. Thank you very much.
Hi Sue ~ So sorry about everything you have been through. Your case reminds me why it is so important to have a compassionate primary care physician overlooking your situation and guiding you properly. Feel free to email me from http://www.idealmedicalcare.org and if you click on “ideal clinics” and then “find one near you” then you may find a physician who can help you.