Human nature…..a very interesting thing indeed.
After working with people for a while, one starts noticing little things that tend to be intriguing and interesting.
Who we are is a function of a lot of things including our character, upbringing and environment. However, is there also the chance that we are what we do?
Let me explain by asking a question:
Would the stern demeanor a teacher has to assume around rowdy elementary school children every single day soon translate into a stern bearing?
In dealing with patients, I tend to notice certain tendencies that are peculiar to certain professions. Now, the following descriptions are purely observational and are not backed by any kind of science. These observations are also in no way a form a profiling because they do not have any bearing on how I treat them. I just wonder if they somehow support the claim that you are what you do.
So let’s get started:
I have noticed that patients who are teachers still maintain that stern demeanor even when facing surgery and anesthesia. Facing a teacher, I always feel like I forgot my homework. They seem to have assumed control and I come across as being there to do their bidding. Even when they are asleep, they still look and exude that teacher look! It is an interesting dynamic.
Accountants offer a very straightforward kind of affect. Much like, “You are the doctor, I am the patient. You have the obligation to take care of me, so do your job already and stop the chit-chat!” If they are nervous, they never show it. It’s almost like business as usual. I have had a few auditors as patients as well and they seem to be even a level more intense.
With lawyers, one always has the feeling like they are circling the wagons, looking, sniffing, ready to pounce. Almost like, “A-ha!, I’ll see you in court!’ (Kojo Ace, I greet you!????) Everything one says to them is weighted, compared and balanced against the scales of something unseen.
Veterans are an amazing bunch. (The few left from WW II and the Korean War are in a special class of awesome!) Describing them as stoic is an understatement. (Obie, greetings!) Most times, I expect them to say, “Doc, I don’t need anesthesia for that amputation. Give me a shot of bourbon and a bullet to bite on!” If one ever asked, I wouldn’t know where to get a bullet at the hospital. I wonder if the pharmacy stocks them.
Staying with the military, drill sergeants are a special breed. They cannot help just instilling fear wherever they are. At least in me they do. I always feel like I have to drop and give them fifty.
Cops, firemen and soldiers are sort of stoic to a level too, but not as much as veterans. They almost exude the feeling, “I need to be out there so please hurry up!”
Probably the most challenging group to take care of are patients who are in the medical field. Those who do not work in the perioperative setting are the most interesting. A short read-up on the kinds of anesthetics and practices out there 24 hours prior to surgery is often enough for these colleagues to dub themselves specialists in anesthetic care. Some demands are, well, interesting.
“Are you going to do a spinal for my thyroidectomy?”
“Huh?”
Most of us in medicine tend to be attentive to detail and want to be in charge. Well, we seem not to be able to let go in the perioperative phase too.
So what do my unscientific and probably biased observations really show? Do they support my initial claim that we are what we do? Probably not but these observations show that humans are a diverse bunch and hence the reactions to the same set of conditions will vary widely. Whether what someone does affects how they react may well be true but a real study may be needed to figure that out.
In the mean time, I’ll keep adding to my observational sample size by listening to my patients, calming down their fears and giving them the best care I can.
Don’t we all?