The New Job
JESSICA WHITFIELD STANDARDIZED PATIENT
Molly was starting a new job today as a standardized patient. She had plenty of experience pretending to be sick to get out of school when she was growing up, plus she acted in a play in high school, so this job is the perfect fit. Molly showed up to the training session and picked up the case file and took a seat. The trainer went over a lot of information: history of present illness, past medical history, surgeries, medications, family medical history, allergies; it was a lot. Plus, she had to learn medical exam maneuvers and how to react to them. After the trainer went through the case, it was suggested that the SPs do some role playing. SPs took turns playing the student doctor and playing the SP to help practice the case. Molly paired up with Gina, an experienced SP, who agreed to play the student doctor first. Molly answered Gina’s questions while reading through the case. “You’re doing great,” Gina told her. “But you know that you can’t hold the case file during the encounter, right? You have to memorize it.” Molly stared at her wide eyed. The case file was several pages long. She had a smaller part in the school play and only had to memorize a few lines. This was going to be harder than she realized. At least this case wasn’t until next week, so she would have time to study. Gina also gave her some tips on memorization, which included writing out all the pertinent case facts. Kind of seems like a lot of work though. The next day, Molly was sent out to a children’s hospital to play the mother of a sick baby. The baby would be played by a manikin, and Molly would be working with Henry, another
SP playing the dad. This time, the case file was only one page, so it was much easier to memorize. Molly arrived at the children’s hospital and met Henry. He explained that he had done this case before and told Molly that they like it when the parents get angry or cry, because it challenges the learners and gives them a more realistic experience. Molly was terrified. She never had to cry or get angry on stage before. Luckily, Henry knew what he was doing. When the baby manikin started coding, Henry yelled at the learners, demanding to know what was going on. Real tears ran down his face. Molly watched his performance in awe. She felt bad that she wasn’t contributing as much. Molly went home that night in self-doubt. What had she gotten herself into? This was way harder than she realized. Kramer made things look so easy on that episode of Seinfeld. Even though she had already taken an acting class in high school, maybe it was time for another one? Is it possible that Molly didn’t know as much about acting and improv as she thought? Henry had mentioned an improv workshop and some acting classes that he was taking. Henry was so good, and even he was still taking classes. Molly decided to sign up for the classes. She also took Gina’s advice and hand wrote all the case facts for the next SP case she was doing. It wasn’t easy, but after putting in the work, Molly was less stressed about her new job and became a better SP because of it.
The Lives We Touch
BETHANY BOCKELMAN UMKC MEDICAL STUDENT
Medium: Drawing Artist’s statement: This drawing represents the people healthcare workers care for and the lives we touch. Around the main figure is a piece of a poem by physician and poet William Carlos Williams that inspired me.