True , I am not a doctor but I stated my qualifications quite
clearly. I am a registered nurse in the state of VIC and NSW
,Australia - training done in Singapore and was originally
registered in SIngapore but cannot be arsed to pay registration
fees for a place I don't work in . Why do these countries even
bother to register us nurses if any tom/dick/harry can do the job?
So surely we must know something , right? So state your depth of
medical knowledge and please don't tell me you took things word for
word from Harrison's Book of Internal Medicine .
In the first place , asking mommy is not a good idea even if she is
a doctor . Your mother is qualified so she can speak for herself
and bear the responsibility on her own registration if something
goes wrong. You can't .
If you are a medical student or even a nursing/allied health
student , you should know that refereed MEDICAL articles are
available on Medline database and OVID, Web of Knowledge ISI
database . Those are researched publications and you must also know
how to judge the data to deem it accurate. Those articles are
sometimes used in the court of law too in medical negligence cases
and most specialist witness would refer to them .
I have my own busy life with duties and obligations outside the
internet and right now I am very busy till about half of february
so I can't give long and exhausting explanations to the medical
questions. I hardly have time to log in the forums. The other mods
are busy too and they have no time to log in. During I am typing
this here, I am neglecting few of the things I have to do outside
the internet and it can have a bad effect in the future. If you
check my posts from the time when I was more free, you will see
they don't sound like from someone who has no idea.
This forum isn't for cure nor do we tell the forumers to blindly
follow what we say. It's mostly for explanation. You will see that
we often advice them to see a GP or a specialist. We also don't
prescribe drugs nor anything else what could harm anyone. I have
adviced one person to try gingko - a natural vasodilatant to
improve the blood circulation in his limbs but I have told him to
check it with his doctor who knows his medical history for the case
he has some condition for which a vasodilatant wouldn't be safe
though gingko biloba is natural and you can get it everywhere or
drink it as a tea.
Also you can see that I usually ask few questions before I make
some conclusion. Overspeeded conclusion could be wrong that's why I
try to get as much info about the person's problems as possible.
That's what the other mods do here too
Fair enough . But General RULE when we all started off as
students in medicine/nursing/allied health - if unsure, don't do it
. If you are busy , don't answer then if you are going to make a
big boohoo of an answer. No one is going to blame you if you don't
say a thing. Right?
There was an intern aka houseman who was so busy that he told my
mom the wrong thing in a very rude way - of course I made a
complaint because my mom was crying for the whole day thinking she
has cancer when she has gastritis only .
I would not have complained if he actually told my mom that he was
busy and would check when he is free . I could have made things
worse for the intern since the hospital can actually be sued for
misinformation ( learn vicarious liability) and make him get a mark
on his employment but I didn't . I guessed he was busy when he made
such a stupid comment . That was in Singapore when this happened.
In Australia , the families actually sue hospitals plus the staff .
Not as bad as USA but bad enough .
If you want to do things , do it right for the first time.
I will tell the others mods to tell everyone to visit a doc anyway
as you said that some of the patients don't go to a doc and rely on
the internet and also tell them to think of some disclaimer. You
would probably like one where they warn everyone against me. I
think this can be arranged.
I understand your concern. But I find it a bit strange that you
have appeared in this forum right after you joined your friend in
attacking me in one other forum for some irrelevenat thread. It
looks like you have checked on me and now want to see my head
rolling.
Anyway, even before we had here someone who was criticizing one of
the mods and I think you are not the last one.
When the other mods are free and can log in again, I tell them to
read your posts and to think about your ideas and we all will try
to handle them.
I would like to see you moderating - If you must answer - at
least give someone a reputable website to go to like mayo clinic or
maybe quote an article or two from some reputable journal like New
England Journal of Medicine , JAMA , BMJ regarding things people
are asking if you can comprehend medical lingo ( I am not sure
about your depth of knowledge) . Not go ask mommy or mommy's friend
. If you cannot answer - find a reputable website - mayo especially
, who has some q and A on the topic before even trying to attempt
blind
Yes , Gedanken is my friend irl but he has nothing to do with this
forum or the other , I stand on my own in this one and in the other
. I answer on my own right and as a member of the public. Sometimes
he can be blunt but I can accept it .
Maybe you should read what I said about how my patient told me
about the internet - how he delayed treatment and how he died on us
a few days later. This is kind of thing you don't forget . None of
my colleagues ever forgot the look on his face and how he bled to
death - via vomiting while we were trying to stop him from bleeding
out by running Hartmann's and blood as fast as possible via 3
Intravenous lines plus NG tube him for decompression which inturn
clotted up quickly and had to be pulled out . That was a man who
thought he had gastritis only via researching some quack website
and had instead a few perforated gastric ulcers which never gave
him much of a sign except a gnawing pain ,except for the increasing
burning pain when they preforated...he was in the hospital when he
was admitted because the gastroenterologist got a strong suspicion
about his gastric ulcers before the perforation started. One is bad
enough but this guy had 4 of them inside . Small ones plus a big
one at the body of the stomach.
Can you imagine how his family felt?
That is why I think for the sake of the moderators and others - to
put up a clear disclaimer .
