Why are people so #%*&@ dumb?!

[Jumbie]

I'm almost finished with my 3rd year of medical school so I've been in the hospital since last August doing clinical rotations. We have a choice of hospitals we can go to and I picked this one because it's in a poorer neighborhood with a lot of patients on social security or charity care; this means that I get to do a lot more hands on stuff than I would in a more affluent area with private patients (sometimes we're not even allowed to observe the private patients). The only reason I mention this is because maybe since it's a less educated patient population they aren't as informed as they otherwise might be but it boggles my mind that patients will come into the E.R. or clinic and when I take a history from them, they don't even know what medication they're on. They usually know that they're on something for high blood pressure but no clue what the name of the particular medication is. I then resort to rambling off the names of some of the more common ones hoping that it will ring a bell but still, at least 50% of the time, that doesn't work. *sigh*

Yes, there is often a shortcoming that I see every day where doctors do a piss poor job of explaining things to patients they are treating, but this doesn't excuse someone from not knowing what the hell they are putting into their body.

And that's just the beginning...

Sorry for the mini-rant but it frustrates the hell out of me that sometimes patients cannot get optimal care because they are so damned passive and clueless about their health.

[EDIT]

I just realized that the title of this thread is pretty inflammatory. I actually do care about the patients that I see and want the best for their health. I'm just really frustrated that people don't care to participate in their own health.

[/EDIT]

 

[Connemara]

I imagine they don't pay much attention to their medication because they're working 70 hours a week to put food on the table.

 

[Jumbie]

Originally Posted by Connemara

I imagine they don't pay much attention to their medication because they're working 70 hours a week to put food on the table.

That's a ridiculous excuse.

It's really not one at all.

I'm not expecting people to know how their medication works. Some of them know that they're on a "water pill" i.e. a diuretic for their pressure. That's great. But if they didn't it wouldn't be a problem. All I'm wishing for is for them to know the name (or something close to it so it can be deduced).

 

[West24]

Originally Posted by Connemara

I imagine they don't pay much attention to their medication because they're working 70 hours a week to put food on the table.

oh shuuuuuuuut up. thats a great excuse for not reading the labels of something youre taking! i bet they know their crack dealers name!

 

[thinman]

When my 80-year-old mother was alive, she couldn't name her meds because (a) she was taking so many, it was impossible even for me, a professional chemist, to remember and name them all (including the dosage) and (b) she (foolishly) trusted anyone with the title of "doctor" completely and felt (again foolishly) that she didn't need to know that information. I always kept a list of her meds with me, for those times when I needed to meet her in the ER.

Edit: It's not necessarily apathy, sadly patients are sometimes not competent to know this information.

 

[globetrotter]

keep in mind that half of the population is less that average intellegence - we get used to the fact that most of our friends are educated, and most of the people we work with. some people are just stupid. that is life.

 

[whodini]

I'm also a 3rd year and frankly I'm surprised when patients know drug names AND dosages. But honestly, people are usually on several medications that each have frankly foreign names (can the average person think of a word that rhymes with "atenolol"?) and are under the assumption that all problems of a certain condition are treated the same way. Also, I find that patients tend to trust doctors (go figure) so it doesn't matter much to them what they put in their body as long as their doctor was the one who told them that they needed it.

Give it some patience. Are there some potentially serious contraindications or complications lurking? Always, but just ease up a little.

 

[West24]

im guessing hes not talking about people in that situation, where that isnt because of stupidity but old age etc.

 

[gamelan]

on the flipside, why are some doctors so &#^$&# dumb that all they know how to do is prescribe medication?

-Jeff

 

[celery]

Here's a few tips for the medical industry you might want to pass around.

1. Better handwriting. I'm looking at you MDs! Maybe if we could read what you prescribed us we would know what it is? Otherwise, it looks roughly like a Pollock painting.

2. Rename the medication. When a word has 31 letters and 7 of them are X's and you can't pronounce it to save your life, it's pretty hard to remember what you're taking.

No one has trouble with Nyquil and other average OTC drugs.

3. Maybe, you know, you doctor's could make notes in your patient's files so you don't have to ask at all. It's not like the pharmacy is going to give someone a completely different medication just to keep you on your toes.

4. Have some humble pie. You might be able to rattle off a billion medications, but when your interior decorator asks you what colour paint your walls are, and you say, "white." Don't forget that they probably had this same conversation on their own internet forum about stupid people who can't remember what colour paint was used on their walls, while the correct answer was Navajo Eggshell.

 

[West24]

its the same as when you watch infomercials, or those latenight shows where priests spout the stupidest **** about give them money etc and jesus will find you, youll get rich etc.
you wonder how the **** do these thing work, and then you realise how many stupid, stupid people there are in this world.

 

[Jumbie]

Originally Posted by thinman

(b) she (foolishly) trusted anyone with the title of "doctor" completely and felt (again foolishly) that she didn't need to know that information.

It's unfortunate that people are so trusting of doctors. This is much less so at present than with older doctors but medicine is such a gigantic field that it is impossible for everyone to know everything (which is why there are currently subspecialities withing subspecialities these days). Sadly, most people seem to think that medicine is clear cut and if they have symptom X, Y and Z it means they have disease A. But that's going off track.

There are a lot of horrible docs out there (hopefully I don't become one) but sometimes they just don't know.

It's funny that one of the patients I saw yesterday was 91 years old. I saw him with my attending physician and everything my attending said to him, he answered with "Yes doctor". The deference was as clear as day. That's how he grew up - the doctor knows best. I'm pretty sure that Dr. V could have told him to boil his feet in water and he would have done it.

I always kept a list of her meds with me, for those times when I needed to meet her in the ER.

Which is great. I've seen this a few times in the clinic setting and it's great when people's family take the time to do this. It helps everyone all around.

Having said that, I can understand older people or those with mental defects such as schizophrenia, dementia, etc., to not recall their list of meds (which are sometimes extensive like in your mom's case) but when perfectly functioning individuals come in and tell me that they are on 15 pills (none of which should affect their mental function) but can only name 1, that's just ridiculous IMO.

 

[whodini]

Originally Posted by celery

Here's a few tips for the medical industry you might want to pass around.

1. Better handwriting. I'm looking at you MDs! Maybe if we could read what you prescribed us we would know what it is? Otherwise, it looks roughly like a Pollock painting.

2. Rename the medication. When a word has 31 letters and 7 of them are X's and you can't pronounce it to save your life, it's pretty hard to remember what you're taking.

No one has trouble with Nyquil and other average OTC drugs.

3. Maybe, you know, you doctor's could make notes in your patient's files so you don't have to ask at all. It's not like the pharmacy is going to give someone a completely different medication just to keep you on your toes.

4. Have some humble pie. You might be able to rattle off a billion medications, but when your interior decorator asks you what colour paint your walls are, and you say, "white." Don't forget that they probably had this same conversation on their own internet forum about stupid people who can't remember what colour paint was used on their walls, while the correct answer was Navajo Eggshell.

1. The handwriting is amazingly clear on a prescription bottle.
2. You've got to be kidding me. Do you think practicing doctors choose the names of pharmaceuticals?
3. We do. Problem is, you get a patient referred to you, or one that doesn't have a previous history, etc. Imagine bumping into a random stranger off the street and right then and there asking him what he's on. That's what happens with us.
4. As I stated in my previous post, this is totally understandable and I agree that we need to have more patience. It wouldn't hurt if we told patients to carry around a list of medications and dosages with them in case of emergency but I guess few do.

 

[Jumbie]

Originally Posted by whodini

But honestly, people are usually on several medications that each have frankly foreign names (can the average person think of a word that rhymes with "atenolol"?)

Which is perfectly understandable. I agree that medications can have absolutely stupid names. There are many times when I'm like "What!? Why the hell did they call it that?" which is why I try to go through common medications so that they will hopefully ring a bell.

Give it some patience. Are there some potentially serious contraindications or complications lurking? Always, but just ease up a little.

Yes, there sometimes are or we just need to know if they are on something in the first place.

 

[whodini]

And harder still is that certain drugs have the same ending. It's a clear bonus for us as we can easily categorize it but it makes it damn impossible for the average person.