The so-called excellent med student

Most malpractice in hospitals begin with the medical students' attitude in med school. Although some are 'excellent' in their exams, sometimes they lack the very basic common sense one should have.

Let me give u an example. A couple of years ago when we were doing a medical check up session in Malaysia Hall Cairo, i saw an intolerable attitude of some of the med students there, which was 'taking things for granted'.

All med students should know, that there are specific instructions to use the lancet; a needle-like object used to prick a patient's fingertip for glucometer purposes. The new ones should be differentiated from the used ones, indicated by the position of the 'cap'. Here's a picture:

A picture, showing a used lancet (left) and a new one (right).

So when i tried to compress the plastic garbage (where they throw away those lancets among other things) to give more room, my hands were pricked by several lancets. And when i checked inside it, most lancets were thrown away without their respective caps!

The caps were put there for a reason, people! But when i asked who left the lancets naked, this one friend said to me, "Alaah takpelah, bukannye ada apa pun. Nanti buang jugakk."

Can u imagine??!

This is a LETHAL mistake. I'm not exaggerating. You're working with blood here. Imagine if some of the patients have, say, Hepatitis B, or even AIDS, i would definitely get it too! Coz i was freakin' pricked by their lancets!

Guys, I'm not the only one at stake here. Garbage collectors and innocent bystanders are also involved.

This 'endah-tak endah' or 'melepaskan batuk di tangga' attitude is what leads to bigger malpractice in the future, where lots of bigger things are at stake.

Yes, today it's a 'small' thing like this.. But when habits become attitude, who knows what else he would have done?

This is some of the things that Dr. Jerome Groopman feels strongly about. He even wrote a book titled 'Second Opinions' where he narrated some of the stories which involve some of huge complications caused by doctors who took things for granted, just to get a (i'm quoting) 'good long sleep'. He's the author of this must-read book, 'How Doctors Think'.

Oh, i have a collection of all of his books. Thanks to a friend in Cardiff who is kind enough to buy them from me from amazon.co.uk and refused when i wanted to pay her back. Jazahallahu khairal jazak ^_^

Gosh, u guys must be soo jealous at me rite now~ LOL (^_~)