Advice to Medical Students - your thoughts
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Hi all,
Just wanted to update you and let you know that the talk with the Medical Students went really well. They were a fantastic group of young people who were so keen to understand the impact of cancer on our lives and I'm really grateful for everyone's input to this post. I took @Romla's suggestion and printed out a copy of your comments and this was a great way for them to take away some key messages about always putting the person before the diagnosis, recognising that survivorship and the ongoing side effects / worries can be as difficult, or more difficult in some cases, for many of us and that simple manners and respect go a long way. I was a bit anxious about doing this talk (it's been a while between public speaking duties!) but the Group leader, an Oncologist working with some clinical trials at the Uni was wonderful and able to put me at ease and it actually ended up being a really fun morning!
Btw @Zoffiel, I did check out the footwear but not a brown pointy shoe to be had! Perhaps it's a Melbourne thing??
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eye contact & a sense of humour.
At my initial visit, I had a close male friend with me, my surgeon turned away from his desk, sat directly opposite me, and maintained eye contact the whole time he was talking to me, the others in the room were not important to him at that moment, only i was. He did speak with and acknowledge my friend, however it was clear that I was the focus of his attention. It was a huge thing for me & because of that he gained my trust very quickly.
He also smiled at the right times & had a sense of humour. It really made a difference to me & put me at ease.4 -
@Jane221, how awesome that you were able to impart all of this information to the med students. I'm perfectly sure that your presentation has impacted greatly upon these keen young minds and how wonderful that they will be able in turn to remember and utilise their new found understanding. Thank you, it's people such as yourself who push aside anxiety and let groups know how we are feeling. Big hug lovely. Xx Cath1
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Hi just wanted to add one thing, when we went to see the early breast surgeon after we had seen him the first time and he ordered the staging scans, we sat down in front of him and after telling us that there was nothing he could do, did we know an oncologist!!! and the statistics were 7 years!!! no one should EVER be told this information in this manner, I agree with the advice of letting the students read all of these comments, some Doctors need to learn how to speak/deal with people, we have feelings and no one needs to be told they have a life expectancy of seven years before even seeing an oncologist!!!!
wendy550 -
Good for you Jane. We could maybe put you on a speaking circuit to all the med students around the country. Seriously though, it was so good that you could do this and I’m sure those young med students were really appreciative of the advice given to them.
Well done you.
Paula xxxx1 -
Well done and many thanks for allowing us all to have a say.3
