So many things would be better if doctors could just say “yeah that is a real problem but there isn’t much we can do to treat it so our only real recommendations are other things that raise your general health level to compensate”
instead they just say “thats normal” or “oh theres nothing wrong with you”. Because in their mind “it wont kill you and i cant fix it” means its not worth mentioning.
Affirm the problem doc, it wont kill you. Knowing that something just isnt the kind of thing doctors treat will save your patients so much time, money, and stress, all of which will improve their health.
I was going to link to that essay about how med school beats this out of doctors, complete with clinically diagnosable PTSD in 20-40% of doctors depending on field.
But then I went to collect the link on duckduckgo since I don’t have my bookmarks at work, and oh god, there’s actually thousands of these essays, and even studies now.
So uh. I’ll synthesize a bit here:
Doctors need to stop doing this, yes. But for that to happen, med school has to stop punishing this with public humiliations, residency has to stop punishing this with extra shifts, and employers have to stop firing doctors who admit this for “malpractice liability.”
The individual doctors sending their patients home ignorant and afraid are the last leg in a long chain, basically.
I have always thought the system of “what doctors can and can’t get punished for” is very backward
if a doctor treats a patient and the patient dies or gets worse, the doctor is liable for malpractice, which has often been the reason doctors have refused to treat someone
if a doctor refuses to treat a patient, and the patient can’t find another doctor soon enough and dies or gets worse as a direct result of being denied treatment, the doctor is not held responsible at all
if a doctor tells me “it won’t kill you and I can’t fix it,” but acknowledges it’s a problem and has a name, I can look up the name and maybe find someone or something else that could help me with it. but the doctor can get in trouble for saying this.
if a doctor tells me “it’s normal,” I might live my whole life never knowing if there is any way to make it any better. this worsens my life a whole lot, compared to the other option. and yet, this is the option the doctor cannot get in trouble for.
wtf healthcare system