Anonymous asked:

So I'm in vet school and we've been taught to always do a full clinical exam in every patient even if the problem seems really ovious like a huge lump or something. We're also taught how to best explain conditions/treatments to owners. Whenever I go to the doctor though, they've never examined me beyond the problem I went there for and they don't explain the problem, treatment or how it works. I've never had anything seriously wrong with me but I didn't think they would approch it so differently

drferox answered:

The more you know about medicine in general, the more frustrating human doctors become to deal with.

For example, i was finding myself short of breath very easily after an anaesthetic, and I had to specifically ask the doctor to take the stethoscope off the wall and listen to my breathing.

I don’t know if human doctors are taught differently, but there probably is a degree of not touching your patient more than you have to, whereas in veterinary medicine it’s recommended we check as much as possible. This might be because our patients don’t talk and there are less consent issues, so I’d wonder how this applies to pediatrics.

There does seem to be a certain degree of human doctors expecting patients to tell them what the problem is, though it seems they’re more likely to check paramaters that the patient is unlikely to know might be a problem, such as blood pressure. They also seem to rely very heavily on handouts, which is not necessarily a bad thing in this age of information, and may be a symptom of being time-poor.

But yes, I’d agree it’s frustrating to go to the doctors and expect a certain standard of care only to not get it.