South Africa: Confessions of a Medical Student

Confessions of a medical student – The Mail & Guardian

I was 21 the first time a patient of mine died. It wasn’t like Grey’s Anatomy. There were no moments of silence, no beeping flatlines in the background and no weeping family members outside the door. It was cold and matter of fact. The intern looked at me and said, “There’s a hundred more in the waiting room, so you better get moving.”I didn’t understand why no one seemed to care. I felt hopeless. The doctors moved mechanically to call the famil…

South Africa: Confessions of a Medical Student

Medical school didn't prepare Sarah Stein for the cold, matter-of-fact way her colleagues dealt with death. When she asked one of the doctors she worked with how they could move on so quickly after a patient died, they explained it wasn't a lack of care -- it was self-preservation. In public hospitals where beds and wards and passages are filled with death and sickness, to not step away, she says, is to allow yourself to become enshrouded by it.…

Confessions of a medical student — what they don’t teach you

Plenty of people told Sarah Stein that practising medicine would be difficult. Now, as a fifth-year medical student at the University of Cape Town, she wishes she would have listened more carefully.