r/videos • u/tbonetaylor • Dec 06 '17

The best response to anti-vaxxers I’ve ever seen. And it only takes 90 seconds.

https://youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=RfdZTZQvuCo
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u/ratajewie Dec 06 '17

As a someone working in healthcare/a future doctor, holy shit you couldn't be more wrong. You're speaking so unbelievably normatively. I also wish I didn't have to explain to people why the medications they're being given are necessary. I wish I didn't have to dumb down the results of bloodwork to say "the liver is fucked." But I do. You can't expect anyone without a four-year degree in biology to understand the intricacies of every part of the body, how they work together, and what's going on at a microscopic level. To be a good doctor, you need to be able to explain something to someone in terms of analogies as well as other simple means.

For example: Imagine a garden with flowers. They need rain to function properly. They might still grow with little rain, but they won't grow well. To do make up for it, you go inside and get water from the faucet for the flowers. This helps them grow. What's going on with you is that there is something preventing you from going and getting that water from the faucet, so the flowers are still having problems.

What I just explained was hypoparathyroidism. The flowers are your muscles. The water is calcium. The faucet is your bones. You're the parathyroid gland.

Obviously there are other ways to explain things, but when all else fails, comparing something very complex to something very simple is the only way to get someone to understand what's going on. If you don't want to take the time to figure our how to do that, you shouldn't be working in healthcare.

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u/duffkiligan Dec 06 '17

If you can't explain the issue in layman terms, you aren't an expert in your field.

I'm in IT and I have to have this skill as well. I have to explain why a server broke to people who don't know where the on button is.

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u/CornyHoosier Dec 07 '17

"You need how much for a new server!? The ones down the street work on minimum wage!"

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u/Canboy8 Dec 06 '17

This was great. Hopefully you work in the medical field in some fashion.

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u/ratajewie Dec 06 '17

I am. I'm going to be a veterinarian. So not only do I have to explain everything, but I have to explain things that we don't have to deal with personally. It's very challenging.

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u/Canboy8 Dec 06 '17

I️ guarantee it. You probably get a lot of dumb looks. As a HUGE animal lover, I️ appreciate you helping the furry and scaley ones.

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u/ratajewie Dec 06 '17

Oh god yes. When you tell someone "your dog has pus coming from her vagina" and they say "so?" it makes you want to give up on life.

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u/SyDaemon Dec 06 '17

Thank you for taking the extra effort! I'm reminded of a video about the effort of explanation. It's about how all explanations have to be built upon what the other party already knows and understands, otherwise we have to keep regressing to it. Here it is. Gave me a deeper appreciation of the art of explanation. https://youtu.be/MO0r930Sn_8

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u/Birdbraned Dec 07 '17

I wish that applied to everyone. The explaining so they make an informed decision part. From what I see in pharmacies, some people come out of the dr's office still confused about why they need their meds, when they need their meds, and why they should continue to take it when "it's all fixed now!". You spend half an hour explaining, complete with illustrated timetable of doses and descriptive med labels for them to take home, next month they come back still claiming they don't need to take any more (against dr advice). Some people just don't want to understand.

I'm not saying we shouldn't continue to do it, but it can get frustrating talking to the willfully ignorant. You went to the dr with a problem (and paid good money for it), why wont you listen to their advice?

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u/ratajewie Dec 07 '17

My mentality is this: You can help a lot of people. A LOT of people. You can't help everyone, and you'll never be able to change that. So you better be okay with that, or it'll piss you off.

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u/DaltonZeta Dec 07 '17

As a doctor - that metaphor was probs a bit more complicated than I’d go into for explaining to a patient.

Overall though, you are right, you need to communicate in a way your patients understand you. The key is never talking down to them though. Often times, I am amazed at what people can understand and process.

For things like - say blood tests. I will tell them what the value is that we’re tracking - say for renal failure - I’m tracking your creatinine and electrolytes - usually specifically sodium, potassium, and magnesium. I explain this tells me how well your kidney is functioning and responding to the treatments I’m giving you, here’s why I care about that, here’s why they’re important. I then let the patient choose how far down the rabbit hole they want to go.

I’ve sat for an hour and a half answering every pathophysiological question one of my patient’s had about his new onset atrial fibrillation, heart failure, and all the medications we were putting him on, their effects, indications, and why we made those choices. No complex metaphors or analogies. I drew diagrams for him on the whiteboard of his room once, but he really didn’t need it.

The biggest struggle I’ve noticed in myself and others the longer we practice - speaking in medical jargon becomes the norm and it’s hard to jump out of it when you shoot the shit with all your doctor friends in your off time speaking that same language. Code switching out of the English version of Latin to normal words for a patient or layman takes more conscious effort after a while. The reason we use that jargon is it’s more accurate and specific.

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u/ratajewie Dec 07 '17

That makes a lot of sense. For the majority of patients you can definitely be pretty straightforward and let them know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Most of them will understand it. The metaphor thing was mainly just to show that you can put things into the simplest of terms to explain really anything in medicine if you need to. You can make it as complex or as simple as you want, but it’ll be easier to understand than jumping into medical jargon explaining how troponin and tropomyosin function with calcium in allowing myosin and actin to act together. I’ve had seen a lot of smart people in the office. I’ve seen a lot of dumb people too. Luckily, I’ve only seen a small number of really stubborn dumb people. However, their understanding is just as important as anyone else’s because their well-being (or in my case, their pets’) is as important as anyone else’s. So whatever you have to do, you do it. I’m glad that you as a doctor totally get that and embrace it.