Hello all!
Sorry it has taken me a few days to update the blog. I keep trying to upload pictures, but the WiFi in my dorm has been ridiculously slow the past two days. I guess until I figure that out, it will just have to be words! Definitely not as fun as pictures :(
For the past few days, I have just been settling in and attempting to get my bearings. I am a little homesick and am missing the little things in life: driving my car, heat in my house, unlimited showers, Western toilets, English letters. This experience makes me a little more grateful and humble everyday.
I realize it is pretty cold back home in Indiana, but I am freezing here in Guangzhou! It's typically 60-70 degrees during this time, but right now, it is the coldest it has been in many years. It's about 40 degrees. The problem is that none of the buildings here have heat, so my room is so cold, I have to wrap myself in blankets while sitting at the computer. At night, I sleep with about 3 comforters and wrap them over my head. Supposedly next week, it should be warmer! I feel like I can't ever get warm.
The clinical experience of this rotation has been off to a slightly shaky start. On Monday, I was in clinic all day. Everyone keeps asking me why I am here since I don't speak Chinese! Well... it was supposed to work out ok since supposedly most students/younger doctors speak English. However, not as many people speak English as I thought. Even those that can speak to me don't really translate/interpret what the patients are saying because honestly, they don't have time!
Here at the First Affiliated Hospital of SYSU, patients first arrive to register. At the registration desk, they say why they are here and get a ticket to see whatever doctor they need. There's no appointments, no orderly lines. It's just masses of people shoving their way to the front. After receiving a ticket, they make their way to the appropriate clinic and wait in even more lines. Patients carry all their medical records, lab results, and imaging results themselves. There's no centralized charting system. Everything is handwritten, except for the occasional order, which is printed out on printers that were popular in the states in the early 1990s!
Forget HIPPA and privacy. There's usually 2-3 doctors per room. A doctor will be examining a patient, even doing a pelvic exam, and other patients will be standing there, watching. There are a few screens set up, but people totally ignore them. Patients also read other patient's charts. The only way to get to see a doctor is to make your way to the front of the queue and shove your papers into the doctor's face. Everyone around you hears why you're at the doctor. Can you imagine Americans doing this? Absolutely not!
After completing the exam, such as a pelvic exam, the patient is given their own samples to take to the laboratory themselves. They will be given the results to take back to the doctor. If another test is ordered, such as an ultrasound, the patient will head to another department, get the test, and bring the results back. The doctors have fairly minimal interaction with patients.
It is definitely completely different from the US!
Patients here have very little respect for doctors. This is something that every student and doctor has mentioned to me. Even though healthcare here is very cheap compared to the US, patients feel that, because they are paying, everything must go perfectly. If something goes wrong (which so often does in healthcare), they become irate with the doctor. People have told me about patients trashing clinics, getting physical with doctors... and there have been reports of patients even murdering doctors in other provinces and smaller hospitals.
Don't worry (Mom and Nana, if you're reading this), my hospital is very safe and I don't treat anyone :)
I have plenty more things to discuss, especially regarding obstetrics, gynecology, and the One-Child Law. Some of it is pretty controversial, but anyone who knows me knows I am an open book and don't mind discussing things that others are probably offended by!
Hopefully I can get my WiFi working better and post pictures!
I have to head back to the hospital for afternoon clinic in prenatal diagnosis. I will try to write more tonight or tomorrow!
Love to everyone back home!
Until next time,
jessica.eae
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