I was reminded of this the other day when I had to undergo an emergency procedure. It was spectacularly painful and I was in a bit of a state. My overwhelming feeling was fear; fear of the procedure failing and fear of the pain itself. I was made acutely aware that we are all reduced to a state of impotence and childlike reliance when faced with the unknown; when we have to look to another for help.
But when we think about what sort of doctor we want to be it is often the type of work we want to do that is foremost in our thoughts rather than how we behave. Much has been written about doctor stereotypes, for example:
Surgeon: arrogant, lacking in conversation skills and tact
Anaesthetist: geeky, calm in the face of danger, quiet, dismissive
Orthopod: rugby playing, muscular, not so bright, gung ho
Medic: drug happy, dislikes sudden decisions, always double checking
GP: likes the quiet life, lazy, refers anything tricky, chatty
All of this is a running joke between different specialties and perhaps there is a grain of truth to some of it. After all, if you are going to cut someone open you need supreme self confidence that you can engineer the bits to go back in again. Nobody wants a modest surgeon to operate on them! And if you are going to be on a hospital ward you want to be sure that people are making sure that the right decision is made and checking things and tweaking. When you see your GP you want to be listened to and taken seriously.
You can be many different types of doctor but I know that when I was a patient, the characteristics I wanted most were gentleness and compassion along with strength and confidence. One trait without the others would have made my experience more stressful but that great combination gave me reassurance and trust that it would turn out ok.
That's the sort of doctor I want to be regardless of the specialty I choose.
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