Just like a real doctor
I partook of my first Communications Skills lab today. It's basically a bit of wishy-washy PR, where the Medical Faculty can say 'But look! We taught them Skills of Communication! It's hardly our fault if they suck at them." It turned out to be immensely entertaining. One person played a doctor, another the patient. By the end we had to make up patient scenarios, and one girl decided to have chronic fatigue, hypothyroidism and be pregnant. One of the standard questions you ask a hypothyroidism sufferer is 'have you experienced any weight gain?', only the 'doctor' asked it after he found out that she was pregnant. In other words:
Patient: I'm pregnant. And I think I have hypothyroidism.
Doctor: Oh, I see. So ... have you gained any weight lately?
Okay, maybe you had to be there. But seriously: pregnancy = weight gain = duh = ten of us trying not to laugh our holes off. (Fortunately the role-playing room is connected by video-camera link to the watching room, so they couldn't see us. Unfortunately, the tutor did.)
I thought that was all I had to say, until I got a text message from Muna, one of my Malaysian friends. I volunteered to be the first doctor, just to get it out of the way. I acted like an ass (what else is new?): bumped my leg on the desk and remarked 'Well, that was real professional, huh?' and said 'That's my secretary,' when the tutor came in to adjust the mike volume. Apparently I can't have been as crap as I thought, though, for Muna wrote this:
Rachel, u're juz like a real doc during bh ... wow! you seem very relaxed n natural ... u shud teach me how 2overcome nervousness k ... hehe.
Aside from the natural WTF reaction, I was all whee! I'm a real doctor!
Right, that's it, you can go on with your lives now.