Nonsense!
DSeid and I, like every practicing physician, utilize the information in this diagram (as well as the exact molecular structure of all the compounds involved) in our practices on a daily basis. Thank goodness for biochemistry!!!
*you can never tell when a patient may ask you about all the steps in gluconeogenesis, DNA synthesis or fatty acid metabolism. You’ve got to be prepared.
Absolutely. You can save a patient’s life with a "You sure about that, Doc? " I’ve done that very thing with three or four myself, though my patients up to this point have been critters. In human medicine questioning is even more vital, because as tragic as it is for someone’s pet to die or be injured because a doctor mis-spoke or mis-wrote, it’s far worse for that to happen to a person. And doctors do indeed mis-speak or mis-write on occasion, or forget some detail of someone’s medical history --they’re human beings like the rest of us, after all.
As for the difference between applied biology and medicine, it’s mainly that people are a whole lot more than a conglomeration of biological and chemical systems. They’re, ya know, people, and you have to think about and approach them as such. You have to look at your treatment plan through the lens of their lifestyle and capabilities and risk tolerance. It’s not often an easy tightrope to walk, but it’s one you HAVE to walk for your patients’s sakes because a treatment plan they won’t comply with is worse than no plan at all.
If she does ever get to the point of being a resident, make she remembers this one bit of advice: Never dis the nurse. You don’t know diddly compared to her or him, maybe someday you might, maybe, but not now. Show them the respect they rightfully deserve and they can make your life there tolerable, teach you more than your attending will in the bargain; dis them and you are dead.
And Jackmannii you really should have warned about that image. I’ll now have flashbacks all night!
Agree completely – I learned so much from nurses while in medical school and residency, particularly the emergency department nurses. Ideally, there really should be a team approach between nursing staff and physicians. One of the best run psych units I worked in during training had team meetings daily where we discussed patients; by having nurses, social workers, and recreation therapists in on the discussions we really got a fuller picture of how patients were doing.
One mistake I see medical students and interns make is to treat social workers badly. The social workers in the hospitals where I have worked are amazing and from a very practical standpoint they know so much more than the doctors ever will about resources (and how to access them) for the patient and family outside the hospital.
