Open Letter to the Doctor Who Did My Physical Exam at the Student Health Clinic This Morning

Dear Dr. S---,

You walked into the exam room without knocking. You didn't introduce yourself. By way of greeting, you demanded, "What do I have to sign?"

I know that just checking to make sure I'm healthy enough to enter my third year of medical school and start seeing patients is probably incredibly boring and annoying; I'm sure it's not what you aspired to do as you to studied medicine. I know you can probably guess that I am in good health just by looking at my vital signs and overall appearance. But couldn't you have listened to all four of my heart valves rather than just three? And couldn't you have listened to more than two of the five lobes of my lungs? Yes, I am healthy, but if I weren't, you could easily have missed something.

What about the rest of the exam? Did you decide it was safe to assume I have no swollen lymph nodes, no tenderness in my abdomen, no abnormal reflexes, no back problems? Or did you just not care enough to do these things or to even say "Goodbye" or "You're welcome" as you flew out the door?

Maybe you had just finished with a difficult patient or maybe you were having a bad day. Either way, I want to thank you for signing off on my health form. Thank you, also, for reminding me exactly what kind of doctor I don't want to become.

Becky