Island Med Student

Friday I did my psych rotation at PMH. The cool news? It was my very last day of rotations! All I have left is one practical exam on Monday, one written exam on Thursday, and 3 days of BCLS and ACLS training the next week. I can’t believe how quickly 5th semester has gone by! Today or tomorrow I’m going to post about my overall experience at PMH. Many people have asked me how I liked it and whether or not I’d recommend staying in Dominica for 5th semester. The short answer is yes, STAY!! But I’ll post an official post soon with details.

The psych rotation was awesome. Even though I didn’t get to see too many patients, it was still quite interesting. I think on some level I expected psych patients to be different here in Dominica. Well, for the most part, I was wrong. I met a few patients with schizophrenia and a few who had manic-depression. For the most part, they were strikingly similar to patients I’ve seen in the States. Listening to their stories and getting to know them really reminded me of how much I love psych. Mental health issues can affect peoples’ lives much differently than a physical health complaint. Living with schizophrenia, or having a friend or relative with schizophrenia is an incredibly challenging undertaking. It would be an understatement to say that it’s very difficult and frustrating at times.

After seeing the patients, we spoke with the psychiatrist for a while. He was absolutely amazing and very intelligent. He spoke to us about issues relevant to mental health in Dominica. I was shocked to hear him say that there are very, very few attacks on staff by psych patients in the hospital. I was used to being attacked verbally and physically almost every day at my old job in a psych hospital in the States. When I asked him what he thought the difference was due to, he said that it’s probably because of respect. The patients in Dominica tend to trust and respect medical professionals very much. In fact, I’m always surprised to hear the patients respond “yes, doctor” to me almost every day. They trust what you say to them and respect your knowledge. I guess it’s very different in the States. There is a general suspicion of doctors. And when it comes to mental health patients, there is a lot of mistrust and even downright hatred. Take, for example, a patient with paranoid schizophrenia. They are the epitome of distrustful. Yet here in Dominica, they still tend to trust the doctors and nurses (at least to some degree). This is absolutely amazing to me. I’d like to write a much longer article on this topic, but I don’t have the time right now.

So, more to come soon!

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Would You Prescribe Medical Marijuana?

January 10th, 2008

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Check out my post on Medscape.

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Let’s Talk About Sex

October 02nd, 2007

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After writing that short post about rectal exams, I decided to write a longer piece for Medscape. Also, thank you Jen for the comment about older people having sex. I’ve witnessed that age bias before as well, so I included that in the article.

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The Art of Doctor-Patient Communication

September 28th, 2007

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The dance between doctor and patient is a wondrous sight. Unfortunately, though, sometimes there are missteps.

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The Doctor is in the Details

June 28th, 2007

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Please check out my latest post on Medscape about how even the tiniest details can make a huge difference when it comes to the doctor patient relationship.

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Are Fat Doctors Just Human?

April 28th, 2007

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One of the first things I noticed after stepping off a plane onto US soil is the undeniable obesity problem here in the States. Please check out the article I wrote for Medscape which addresses the issue of fat doctors as healers.

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