The following happens every single morning at my house. Our dog Lucy gets up and walks to the other side of the room to crawl into bed with our dog Swayze. Swayze does not like being woken up by a smelly, snorting pug snuggling with her and growls to let her know. She then proceeds to put her head down and pout. Lucy continues the snuggling. So goes the morning at our house. Every. Single. Morning. Why does Swayze put forth the effort to growl every morning if she knows that Lucy doesn't care and snuggles anyway? This has been going on for months and neither of them are willing to change their habits. Isn't that the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting to get different results?
I caught myself doing this today. I was ranting about how physicians who do not feel comfortable taking care of kids should not take care of kids. Sounds so simple right? But it happens all the time. And I complain about it every single time. I live in a city where there are plenty of pediatric providers, why on earth are adult doctors trying to take care of kids? I understand that I am supposed to show compassion for them and volunteer to hold their hand. After all, show me a 70 year old patient and I will show you someone who doesn't have a clue how to adjust their blood pressure meds or soothe their aching joints. I watched a video with a group of family medicine doctors during a lecture on doctor-patient communication. The video was of a typical clinic encounter between a doctor and his 50-ish patient with diabetes and depression. We were supposed to critique the communication style. The FM doctors commented on how easy and familiar the interaction was and how this must've put the patient at ease. I couldn't help but focus (and feel appalled by) the way the doctor asked about the man's WWJD t-shirt ("WWJD? What's that all about? Do you really care what Jesus thinks?" conspiratorial chuckle) and how he said "If it's not a hell of a lot better give me call." Hell? He said "hell" to a patient?? See? Different worlds, different worlds.
I love my cozy, familiar, non-expletive containing interactions with my pediatric patients and their families. I feel very protective of kids when they're sick and don't want anyone who doesn't know how to care for them doing so. That this will continue to happen in community hospitals everywhere is unfortunately inevitable. I can choose to continue to growl about it every morning or I can choose to amicably share my bed for the greater good. Wait, that sounds weird.
I stepped off my soapbox today and called the offending adult physician and generously offered to write orders for the child's care and to update the family. I hated that I was rewarding bad behavior and enabling a practice that I don't agree with. But ultimately, I choose how I react to a situation. And grumbling day after day is not helping anyone, least of all my patients. I like to think I'm not insane. Swayze however, will come to this realization the day she develops opposable thumbs and starts speaking instead of howling. Until then, I'll enjoy our daily morning ritual because they're my dogs and I love them.
