neurologist had her botox needle like inside my eyebrow before asking if i have any needle phobia, obviously i was like idc lol i work for a derm and she said haha well i can poke needles into other people all day but a baby when it comes to myself hahaha. <- doctors and nurses love to make this joke, i hear it at work when they're a patient, at work when they're the parent of a patient, a surgeon once said it to me, even my boss said it when she taught me how to draw blood on her.* the first time i thought it was just kind of obnoxious but i actually hate it more every time i hear it.
immediately tells me you rush your patients, don't care if they're scared, know you're scaring them, & yet expect that you personally deserve better treatment than that when the tables are turned
serves to distance the speaker from their own fear in the procedure: presents their own phobia as irrational and stupid, the implication again being that they do not view their patients as 'entitled' to these feelings, and when they experience these feelings themselves, it is embarassing to them that they recognise a similarity between themselves and the patients they so look down on
the general extent to which the sentiment is based in valorisation of the ability to withstand pain, and refusal to believe patients when they report that their pain or fear are significant -- i can force myself to knuckle through it, why can't you
the comparison is often literally to babies; the way health care professionals view and treat children is another entire post but like lol
in a work context, is often delivered as a call-inside to me, as in, look at us both having to stick needles in patients, aren't they so annoying, isn't it humiliating when you have to temporarily occupy their position before returning to your vaunted normal baseline of bodily health. well i can't relate actually because i love to perform procedures on myself & do not have a conceptual problem viewing myself as a patient or as capable of experiencing sickness or pain. my problem with medical procedures is that i have to deal with You
*ive used myself as a teaching dummy for other people and my instinct has actually never been that it's a strong idea to make the person feel nervous or like im going to be mad if they make a mistake. but ok