Honesty The Best Medicine

Yesterday I told you how I landed my dream job in Allergy & Asthma. Part of it is the amazing stuff I get to do. Penicillin testing, aspirin desensitization’s, immunotherapy but the other part is getting to work with three great co-workers. One of which is Dr. Williams. My co-worker, Jen, and I love to razz him because he pretty much perfected the oral aspirin desensitization challenge and people come from pretty far to have it done. So in order to keep him level headed we got pick him (it’s only fair, no need for the guy to think too highly of himself).

Another reason I really like the Doc (he says we can call him Adam but Jen & I still can’t do it, so Doc it is) he is honest. You know where you stand with him and he isn’t afraid to tell the patients the truth. If he has tried every option and there isn’t anymore or he just can’t help them he tells the patient that. Sometimes it might be a little blunt but he is a guy and you know they tend to forget those things. (hee hee) I like that about about him. Most doctors now days seem to hate to tell people there may not be more options. Not all doctors but quite a few. They always try to refer to another for more options or re-refer when that original doctor didn’t give the patient the answer they wanted. Sometimes the answer your looking for isn’t there and you just have to hear, IT’S OVER!

Honesty is a good thing in medicine. I was taught in nursing school never to gloss over the truth. You don’t have to be blunt or insensitive but honest. The patient may not be happy about it at the time but eventually they will thank you. We need to get back this. We need to stop worrying about coddling the patients and letting them hear the truth. Our society today would be in a better place today if people were more honest with each other and if people heard NO more often.

This is the coffee mug Jen and I bought Dr. Williams for his birthday. 🙂