A couple weeks ago I was chatting with a patient and I praised one of the nurses who was on the team taking care of him. The patient responded by telling me that he did like that nurse a lot but that I was, "His favorite nurse." I decided to translate that in my mind to "You are my favorite female member of the medical team" which was still quite the complement. This patient had been pretty sick when I first admitted him and explained that I was a 3rd year medical student and that would be taking care of him while he was in the hospital. The patient's brother ended up quietly correcting him by saying, "Pst.... She is a medical student, not a nurse. She is going to be a doctor." The patient made a quick recovery by stating that I was his favorite person on the medical team taking care of him and that he thought I was going to be a really good doctor. It was a heart warming interaction, and I really liked the patient and wouldn't have minded if he had called me a nurse every day. However, it does not change the fact that female medical students, residents and physicians routinely get called, or mistaken for, nurses while male medical students and physicians do not. Over the last couple months, I have probably been called a nurse on average about once a day. For this reason, I decided to educate my blog readers with the following news flash:
Having breasts and being a physician/student physician are not mutually exclusive. :)
This is something that really gets to some female medical students. It doesn't really bother me that much, I just see it as part of the history of medicine (a typically male dominated field) that demonstrates it self in day to day interactions with patients.
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And on the flip side, because I am an "old" nursing student and female, many times I am mistaken for a doctor in the hallway, not only by pt's but other healthcare personnel (we just wear regular scrubs). Go figure on that one. I am 42, but hardly look ancient. If it's any consolation, nurses in general are much more loved than docs, so just go with it. I sit in lectures where never a day goes by without an asshole doctor story. Since my husband is one, you can imagine how painful it is to sit among these types of students and instructors - they seem more jealous than angry too. Why don't they make villains out of PTs, RTs or pharmacists? I am waiting for the day we have a MD guest lecturer for once- it seems like they are shunned as part of the healthcare team. We really need to start understanding each other, working together and embracing all that we have to offer by the individual professions.
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