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Going to the doctor’s is a sensitive situation to be in. Just think about it: you have a problem, likely a serious one, if you’re going to the doctor’s to begin with, which may or may not be embarrassing, and you would like it to be taken seriously. The last thing you want is an unprofessional doctor doing something that would make you uncomfortable or make matters worse.
Well, unfortunately for these Redditors, they won the unprofessional doctor lottery and had to suffer through it. And then they shared their stories with the rest of the internet.
My best friend went from an A cup to DDD bra in about a year and was having back problems. She went in for a consult for breast reduction and the (female) doctor said she wouldn’t even consider doing surgery on someone that young (19 at the time) because any decision about her breasts needed to include her future husband (she wasn’t even dating anyone at the time).
When I was 15 my mom took me to the gynecologist. He told me to get on the scale to check my weight. He then looked me up and down and said ‘You’re underweight, but better stay like that. You’re very attractive, it suits you’. At the time I was dealing with an ED and starving myself.
Professionalism among medical specialists is key in and of itself—but even more so in the ever-changing (and rapidly so) climate of the industry. Things like healthcare reforms and cost control pressures are pushing for change within the system, and so the idea of medical staff professionalism is being considered as a factor that could have an impact on improving things.
My son started passing out one time. We took him to the ER via ambulance. Turns out, we think he was choking on a cookie his aunt gave him.
Doctor wanted us to visit a specialist just to make sure his brain was OK, since he was shaking a lot during the episode.
We went to the specialist and he was 90 min late. He came in, was a d**k, and signed off that our son was all good. When we were leaving, his assistant apologized for the waiting and the doc snapped “DONT APOLOGIZE TO THEM, I’m the doctor, they should wait for me and be happy that I showed up.”
I kindly told the doc “f**k off” and went about my business, since I knew I’d never see him again. Be kind to your patients, doc!
David Stern, a professor of medicine at NYU School of Medicine, has defined professionalism within the context of medicine as including excellence, accountability, altruism and humanism. The Southern California Permanente Medical Group (SCPMG) has expanded upon this definition by breaking down humanism into humanitarianism, respect for others, and honor and integrity.
When I was working with mentally and physically disabled children we had this really sweet girl. She was around 10 years old, had down syndrome, was really heavy mentally disabled but one of the happiest human beeings I have ever met.
She became really sick (dont know what it was) and was delivered to a hospital. When I visited her she lost a lot of weight and I asked the Doctor why she gets no artificial feeding. He answered a “normal” Person would get fed but she isnt for “Natural Selection”. I was shocked and told the girls mother. She was just sad because it wasnt the first time something like this happened.
“You’re a mom now. Suck it up, buttercup.”–said to me by an OB/GYN when I complained of extreme exhaustion and feeling cold all the time after the birth of my son. I was working 40+ hrs a week and my husband was working 60+ hrs, so when I was home, I got stuck with not only taking care of our son but also the majority of the housework, etc. I was so exhausted I couldn’t function without a dozen or more cups of coffee a day and no matter what I did, no matter how much I bundled up, I was freezing cold all the time unless I was outside in direct sunlight or under a stream of hot water in the shower. Took me five damn years to figure out that no, feeling that exhausted all the time wasn’t normal and that the reason I felt that way and was so damn cold all the time was my thyroid had basically said “Yo, I’m out of here. Peace out, b**ches!”. Once I got on medication, I was more or less fine.
Excellence is defined as a physician’s obligation to continue to improve their skill set and the quality of care that they offer. It involves following guidelines, effective communication and the proper use of the resources available to them. This can be done in multiple ways, whether on a personal, systematic, or public health level, as long as the education is evidence based.
She asked if I’d ever been pregnant, and when I said no, she *corrected me* and said “not *yet*.” B***h, “no” was a perfectly accurate answer
And I know she was just being sexist but also I really hope that’s how she answers all the time. “You’ve never had bone cancer? Not *yet*.”.
I had an abscess on my armpit. He refused to put me under to drain it. When the male doctor put the needle in my VERY INFLAMED and red and swollen armpit to provide local numbing I winced in pain and made a sound of discomfort. He said “what? I barely even touched you.” in a very condescending and dismissive tone.
Another time, I got the courage to ask my family doctor to refer me to see a therapist or counsellor in hopes to seek help for my mental health. He told me “no. There is a long waiting list, about 6 months so there isn’t a point. If you need someone to talk to, just talk to me.”.
I went to a new OB/GYN and she’s examining me and I feel a weird sensation. Not painful, just odd. I said, “What are you doing?” and she replied, “I’m tilting your uterus. Some women find this pleasurable.” I was left wondering if I had been violated in some way so that was the last time I saw her. In the 15 years since (including childbirth) have never had another doctor do that.
Then there’s accountability, which essentially means that medical staff ought to prioritize the interests of the patients over their own. This would mean that they would assume ownership of patient outcomes and followups, as well as collaboration with other members of their team in an accountable way. Besides that, it’s also about staying true to professional ideals and society.
Just last year when I was diagnosed with brain cancer. The guy walks into the room to chat about my diagnosis and the first thing out of his mouth was “so, I hear you’ve been talking to another doctor”, all passive/aggressive tone.
Later that morning we met with the other doctor and that afternoon did a pros and cons on our whiteboard and the end result was we immediately ditched doctor A and went with doctor B.
Haven’t regretted the decision one minute.
When I was in college I suddenly started getting nosebleeds everyday. I was concerned about the frequency of the nosebleeds, so I went to the campus health center. Before even examining me, the doctor said it was from the dry air. I told her that I’d never gotten frequent nosebleeds before, and the college was less then an hour away from my hometown so it was in the same climate, but the doctor kept insisting that it was from the dry air. I started to get angry, and she said “I don’t have to treat you, so if you don’t calm down you’ll have to leave.” So I reluctantly calmed down and she did a physical exam, but she still insisted that it was from the dry air. Eventually I saw a specialist at a regular doctor’s office, and he correctly diagnosed it as being from an enlarged blood vessel which had nothing to do with the dry air. He cauterized it and that stopped the nosebleeds.
“A young girl like yourself shouldn’t be wasting her life being depressed and anxious, you really need to be getting over this by now” This was after I told him I have trouble answering the phone because of social anxiety and he just chuckled and said that statement, made me feel horrible.
Altruism is a strong point to mention as it’s all about advocating for the patients’ interests. And that includes things like end of life care, among other things.
The idea is physicians should in a sense forget themselves and be there for their patients—things like showing respect for their personal and cultural backgrounds and admitting to medical errors despite the embarrassment and other factors.
Had a neurologist tell me, after our first and only office consultation, that I was “suppressing abuse at the hands of my father” and “that I needed to dig into it” I was having vision loss in my right eye, and having tremors on my right side, with loss of feeling on the entire right side of my body. Jokes on him. My dad was never around much when I was growing up. But when he was he was a damn good dad. BTW I changed primary care doctors and was sent to a different neuro who ran several tests, and diagnosed me with complex migraine. I still deal with the vision loss, but now I can “sense” when it’s coming.
I had really bad acne starting at the age of 8. When I was 13 I went to a dermatologist who recommended I take acutane. For those who don’t know, acutane does help cure acne but has extreme side effects. So much that you have to get your blood tested while on the medicine to make sure it isn’t causing liver damage.
I mentioned to the doctor I was concerned about the side effects. She told me “Well if you don’t take it then you’ll just be ugly forever”
I was so humiliated I ended up taking the medication.
My acne was not cured btw. To be called ugly by a medical professional at the age of 13 was so damaging that even now, well over a decade later, anytime someone says I’m pretty, I replay the moment of being called ugly and find myself incapable of believing I’m anything but hideous.
I was looking for a referral to getting my tubes removed, at 32 of age (the minimum age is 30). The doctor looked at me, laughed, and said I am too young to make decisions about my reproduction. I should wait until I meet my future husband, and as I will love him so much, I’ll want to “give him everything” including children, and then I would regret my decision.
Oh, and as a result of incorrect food being served at a restaurant I got a bowel obstruction. The pain was so awful that I was brought to the hospital and got a referral to CT-scan. The next doctor took a look at me from the other side of the room, decided that it’s nothing, refused to do the scan, and sent me home. Couple of days later another doctor noticed the obstruction had blocked my urinary tracts and caused pyelonephritis, aka my kidneys were inflamed.
Another part of being a professional medical specialist is humanitarianism. That means that they are in the service of their patients, irrespective of their insurance status. The key here is to work on the overall health of a society, reducing health disparities. Volunteerism and community health are actually strongly encouraged in that sense.
‘You are just stressed and also overweight. Get fit and go on some nice dates; you’re a young woman!’ I had gone to this doctor with hair loss, fingernails breaking, joint pain, brain fog, and sudden unexplainable weight gain. It was my thyroid, which needed one single blood test to diagnose. Fun plot twist: I only got the blood test after starving myself for months to get rid of the excess weight. The late diagnosis is causing issues up to today
I work in child protection and I got a report on a kid that was smacked in the face so hard it left a mark. The report came in a couple of days after and still a mark, so I told the caregiver to take him to the pediatrician to be checked out. Doctor calls me and said the kid was misbehaving in the office and he can see why grandpa lost his temper and smacked him. Found out later he also said that to the kid. And he’s not a bad kid, he just has had so much trauma in his life he’s highly reactive and not always in the most appropriate way.
It goes without saying that professionalism means respect for others. And it’s not just the patients this time around either, but also respect for the team and one’s own coworkers. It is believed that this is what ultimately helps to ensure a higher level of quality in terms of patient care as it empowers other staff members to express their concerns for the betterment of the team.
Went in for a routine EKG, and the practitioner administering it said “sorry, the machine isn’t working right – if this was your real heartbeat, you wouldn’t be living much longer.”
As we learned minutes later, it was my real heartbeat – just had a lot of asymptomatic skipped beats (PVCs).
Turned out to be a relatively straightforward fix – minor ablation procedure, all good.
But those words echoed in my head every waking second I had for the next 6 weeks while i waited for a cardiology appointment.
When I went to get my knees checked and the Dr goes ” if you weren’t over weight they wouldn’t hurt” I’m not over weight and she never checked my knees but offered me “diet pills” to help.
As a teenager, I went to get birth control pills from my doctor, and she told me that I should also start taking prenatal vitamins in case something went wrong and I got pregnant anyway. If I’m here for the pill, what makes you think I’d be keeping an accidental pregnancy?
The last aspects of professionalism that are also pretty universal among professions are honor and integrity. This means upholding high ethical standards and complying with laws and regulations. While it is tempting to find greater financial opportunities by misrepresenting events when recording patient diagnoses and treatment, that’s not a good tactic in the long run.
Not sure if it was the *most* unprofessional thing but I had a fella recently who was examining my wife (for a possible knee replacement) while I was in the room tell her to “spread your legs like you were having sex.”
And this was after bouncing into the room like some damn happy-a*s tweaker when my wife is terrified she’ll never walk again.
We’re not prudes or anything but we never met the fella before and he’s just *assuming* that brusque and irreverent is ok.
Well guess what, Doc?
Many agree that one of the best ways of improving professionalism among medical specialists is focusing on education and medical practice. And, hey, if you can measure the progress and actively integrate this into existing processes, it only gets better from there.
My brother took a friend to the hospital who had just broken her arm, exposed bone and all. One doctor came out to see them, looked at the broken arm, and said, ‘Eeww!’ like she was scared and went back inside. A few minutes later, another doctor came in
Ok so that family guy bit where the doctor tells him he’s fine, just fat? Yeah that.
At the time I actually had bronchitis (as confirmed by a different doctor 2 days later) and this dude seriously goes “I don’t see any reason for your cough, you could lose some weight though”.
I laughed cuz it was funny, I’m not mad about the fat part, I’m mad that I paid him to not tell me I had bronchitis and give me the prescriptions the other doctor did.
So, what are your thoughts on any of this? Do you have some unpleasant stories to share from the doctor’s office? Share them as well as your takes on the whole thing in the comment section below!
And, hey, if you want to read more stories, there’s always more on Bored Panda.
All of my glands were swollen everywhere. The doctor told me it looked like lymphoma and the nurse started crying and gave me a big hug.
Biopsy came back in a week, I was fine, who knows what except an overreactive immune system. My body went back to normal in week or two.
I spent a week ruminating about how to spend the last few months/years of my life. Do not cry and give someone a hug when the tests aren’t in.
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