Needle Sticks and Exposures – One Reason I Hated Medicine
I stayed away from procedures. I never, ever volunteered to do anything and would always do the bare minimum to pass on every single rotation. If the procedure was to be done on a patient with a known STD or blood-borne illness, I refused to do it.
You see, it honestly wasn’t worth it for me to risk a needle stick while performing an invasive procedure on a HIV/HepC+ patient. I don’t care how low the reported risk is — the honest truth is that there is still a risk. The risk of contracting HIV from a needle stick is higher than people winning the lottery, and people win the lottery nearly every day.
I’m sure most of you guys have seen something like the following:
A 42 year old HIV+/HepC+ male with chronic alcoholism and a history of current IV drug abuse.
- Point 1: If it wasn’t for his or her poor lifestyle decisions, they probably wouldn’t be here in the first place.
- Point 2: If I wanted to take the risk of contracting whatever it is that the patient has, I sure wouldn’t do it working 14 hour days and being abused in some shitty hospital.
It just wasn’t procedures, either. I absolutely detested the OR. I hated it with every fiber of my being. My hate stemmed not only from the asshole residents and attendings that I had to spend hours with, but also from the fact that blood was most likely going to be shooting and splattering about the fucking place at some point. For example, we once had a HepC+ guy on the vascular service who needed a femoral popliteal bypass done. He was a chronic alcoholic with near end-stage liver disease, and by the looks of him had lived quite the “exciting life” at the ripe old age of somewhere in his mid-40s. I hoped to God he would leave AMA before we had to take him to the OR.
I’m just not built to take care of people who don’t take care of themselves — and those were exactly the kinds of patients seen at training institutions that take care of the indigent population.
I’m glad I got out when I did. Fuck Hippocrates, let Darwin sort ‘em out. It’s survival of the fittest.
I’m glad you quit.
“Fuck Hippocrates, let Darwin sort em out.” Brilliant line. And great post.
Haha, should have added “bitch” to the end of that last sentence. Excellent post. I don’t think it’s even possible for an ER doctor to not become nihilistic and angry by the end of the first month.
Are you in therapy for your anger? Are you doing therapy for other former med school students? I keep expecting a revolt at all the medical schools nation-wide, lead by “Hoover.”
As usual, another fabulous post. Your dedication page in your best seller will be a tell all! Doctors will have it on their waiting room coffee tables with quotes cross stitched and hung above pretend fireplaces. You will sound like Homey the Clown in your book, but it will be great.
What, no April Fool’s post about deciding to return to medicine?
Haha, I honestly thought about something along those lines =)
Not this year, though.
Hey Hoover, I just wanted to tell you that you were the icing on the cake — after hours of reading on SDN and talking to medical professionals — in my decision not to go into medicine. After I wrap this quarter up (currently on a pre-med track), I’m going to switch to nothing but computer science classes, in hopes of becoming a software engineer.
Thanks a ton!
Wow, great to that Hoover has saved one more potential victim of medicine.
dientamin,
Very cool. Follow your heart and you’ll go far.
Hey Hoov, not to rush you or anything, but how is the forum coming along?
Hmm, I was messing around with it some tonight but honestly it’s coming along slow at the current time. I’ve been busy pounding out some new projects for my company, and they have me pretty occupied right now.
The designer for the forum I had contracted with fell through, and I haven’t looked for another one yet. The forum is on my to do list, and I promise it’ll be up soon.
Love the blog.
Which forum software you using? Maybe i can give you some pointers.
Well this is a sweet little blog. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, you and I seem to have similar characteristics. . .
please read this thread…. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=512931 …. it has comments on this blog entry!
Ah, SDN…the temple dedicated to the worshipping of the medical profession. Beware! Any dissenters and heretics shall be crucified. *And subsequently treated for wounds if they can present adequate insurance coverage.
SDN dorks. I think any infectious disease cases should only be dealt with by those wearing full biohazard suits. Anything less your reasoning about increased risk holds true.
I agree Midas, and they should invent puncture-proof kevlar glove linings that go all the way up to the mid-arm to protect us. I’m being serious too.
As the first poster said, I’m glad you got out. A lot of people in a lot of professions, not just medicine, take a reasonable amount of risk in their jobs everyday. Don’t hate on the profession, just accept your inability to handle it.
Man, I think you’re being pretty harsh on those patients. I used to feel that way too, but then I started to be less judgemental when I realized that a lot of these people have gone through hell, and that’s why they are addicted to drugs and making poor lifestyle choices. I had one patient who was HCV+ because of sharing needles while injecting heroin. I later found out that she had been abused in every way possible since the age of 5. She was a homeless runaway who had been raped several times on the street, beaten, slept on cold streets, etc. You need to grow up and expand your worldview. You complain about having to take some abuse in the OR, yet you can’t relate to these people who have been through things way worse? I am also very glad that you left medicine, since you probably would have turned out to be one of those asshole attendings that have no perspective on what other people are going through.
Steve, you freak, who else risks getting fucking AIDS as a result of their job, being forced to work 30-40 hours straight and become so exhausted that they get clumsy and the risk of getting AIDS from your job goes up, all for the illustrious wage of 40k a year? Hoover, what options are there for a junior doc who wants to get out of clinical-I hate it so much I almost can’t get up in the morning/evening! I’ve thought of Pathology-do you know what that’s like at all?
Love the blog by the way!
Ellie
“Steve, you freak, who else risks getting fucking AIDS as a result of their job, being forced to work 30-40 hours straight and become so exhausted that they get clumsy and the risk of getting AIDS from your job goes up, all for the illustrious wage of 40k a year?”
Cops and Corrections officers get exposed to diseases, also all the other staff in a hospital (nurse’s, PA’s, RT’s, security).
are you seriously going to be a doctor?
If you are only going to take care of people who take care of themselves, good luck finding a patient. What about cancer patients who smoked their whole lives? Also, not everyone who gets AIDS is a drug addict. How can you pick and choose who deserves to live? That’s a really shitty outlook for someone who’s job it is to save lives.
Try not being a privilaged ass sometime.
Hoover I really like ur post but pretty much my mind is made up about medical school.Pretty much if they threatened to shoot me if i went to medical school I would still go.Trust me I work with doctors all the time because I am a nurse and I will trade places with them in a heart beat if it was possible.I guess life experience has taught me that the way we think is because of what we have been through in life.U have no idea.
Just because u could do something else means every body should do the same thing and when u get sick or God forbid have a brain aneurysm u will probably do brain surgery urself because u think everybody who goes to medical school is wrong.well guess what life is a bitch.
I personally think u were wrong to initially go into medicine maybe u thought u would make money and would not have to work.If it was not because of medical advancements u would probably have died of polio as a kid,or even died from small pox or some other killer disease.It is true it is alot of work but if everybody sat on their butts and did nothing do u think we would have ever found a cure for deadly diseases.I understand were ur coming from and some of what u say is true at least 2% anyway but I always tell people do what makes u happy.U are doing what makes u happy and I am very sure 80% of doctors do what makes them happy.I will tell anybody if u think there is a better job out there go for it but trust me in every job there is alot of shit to deal with so u can choose what ever makes u happy but dont let anybody discourage u from ur dreams and if any body does plan to go to medical school specialize on what u like because if u dont u probably will go back to it later.Look at me a nurse now preparing for medical school butI must say it is two different fields entirely just like night and day but it gives u just a little indepth of people dying and all those issues u have to deal with.I guess if u dont owe medical school debt u will owe some kind of debt till u die I know, I’ve worked with all ages and I have seen people over 70 still paying debt and guess what 95% of americans owe debt.Initally owing that much money bothered me initially but u know what for 6 million dollars or more I would still go to medical school so there u have it.Sure as a nurseu make around $55,000 and less school debt,except if u work in some non acute setting they will use the shit out of u for the money they pay u and after couple years of working as nurse I have finally realized that healthcare is stressful and no matter what area u work,including low level workers u still deal with a lot of bullshit.I just want to let people know if I did not want to go to medical school and I had my way I would love to sit at home and playing video games all day,but guess what? life is a bitch so deal with it.Many of my friends that tried non health realated fields and with this economy so bad got laid off.If every body was to do what they like who the hell would wnat to work but guess what,once again life is a bitch.
I’ve always believed that doctors were mean, judgemental, intentionally humiliating, and didn’t give a rat’s tail about their patients. I’m glad to know I wasn’t imagining things. I’ll stick with natural cures, doctors are just too damned scary.