Tea and Sympathy

Gosh, I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted on here. It's been a hectic four weeks in GU Medicine, not because the clinic's been busy but because of all the paper work I've had to do for the University (two assignments and 62 proficiencies - grrr!).

Today I felt very "nursey" as I spent a chunk of this afternoon being an advocate for one of our female patients. She came in for a check-up and as she presented with symptoms, a full screen was carried out. The male doctor (Mr X) showed her into the treatment room, and then I went in to set the equipment up.

The patient was lovely and very chatty. She was a bit nervous and ended up bursing into tears because she was so worried about what nasty infection she may have picked up. I sat with her for a while and we talked it through. I was actually quite surprised that I knew so much about herpes - I've obviously been listening to my mentor! She calmed down a bit, and felt that if she had contracted herpes, it wasn't the end of the world. Before I left the room she asked if she could have a female doctor instead of Mr X, and also said that she wasn't too happy with him as he'd been rather unprofessional during the consultation.

I took this information to my mentor and then attempted to find the female doctor on clinic (Mrs Y).

When I arrived back at the treatment room, two doctors were waiting to speak to me; Mr X and Mrs Y. My mentor had obviously spoken to them, and they wanted to know what was going on. Mr X couldn't understand why the patient would prefer to have a female doctor for the examination (men! No sensitivity whatsoever!). He also kept asking, "why is she so upset? Why was she crying?" He had started to get on my nerves at this point by being so insensitive so I quite firmly told him that the thought of having an infection was rather frightening for her - gosh, it would be for any of us. I think when you end up working in a specific area you forget how daunting it is for people who don't. All of us at the clinic are used to telling patients they've got chlamydia or warts, it's part of our job. But that doesn't mean the patients are used to hearing it. So Mr X really irritated me!

The patient had also informed me that during the consultation, Mr X had received a personal call on his mobile phone. Yes, you've guessed it, he answered it. He did ask the patient if she minded, but she was hardly going to say no, was she? He did get a bit of a telling off about that. He's got a pager; there's no need for him to have his mobile too.

Anyway, rant over! We all felt a bit better after having a delicious cup of tea.