I love the American healthcare system. It’s truly phenomenal, and I’m deeply grateful to it for many things.
There’s one area, though, where I wish it would improve. I wish doctors were taught that there’s a connection between body and soul. They treat patients like the physical and the mental parts are non-communicating vessels. Even in the USSR doctors were more mindful of patients’ emotional states. For example, a Soviet patient would never be told if he had a terminal diagnosis. In the US, on the other hand, a patient in what’s supposed to be a short outpatient procedure is asked what she wants to be done with her organs in case she doesn’t wake up from the anesthesia.
People are suggestible. Don’t tell them they might not wake up if you want them to wake up.
To make matters worse, the nurses demanded that I remove my underwear. I don’t want to say what the surgery was for now but I can say that it was nowhere remotely near the genital area. Given the childhood I had, there’s no likelihood I’m spending six hours without underwear anywhere at any time and for any reason. I ignored the nurses and kept the underwear on, which nobody noticed because, as I said, that’s not where the surgery took place.
Even worse than that, the surgeon had to come in before the operation and put his signature on my body. The surgeon apologized and said he knew it was horrid but I did feel like I was being prepped to donate those body parts everybody was so obsessed with. I still have his signature on me right now as I’m not allowed to shower. Good thing I didn’t get operated in the genital area because that is one place I wouldn’t have enjoyed having anybody’s signature.
Just like practicing psychologists need some training in the human anatomy, physicians need to be trained in the basics of psychology. For one, it would help them avoid burnout and become less addiction prone.
Other than that, it’s really a sensational healthcare system. Everything is very well thought-out, the schedule works like clockwork, no time is wasted but also no resource is spared. I was in a hospital in the middle of absolute nowhere (the closest restaurant was a Denny’s, 4 miles away) but everything was top of the line. The anaesthesiologists were talented people. I’m half-Slav, my general anesthesia takes a different path for biological reasons. For an American specialist in an area with no Slavs, you really need to be on top of your game to make it a smooth experience.
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