#actor patients

Look, I get why we‘re doing this.

Conversations about illness, disability, and death aren‘t easy. Especially not if you‘re having them with a complete stranger. So in order to prepare us as much as possible, you have us play pretend with an actor in front of 5 other students and a professor.

I don‘t mind that people are watching. I have an active imagination, I can immerse myself in the situation. That‘s not the problem.

But can you at least try to give us cases that actually makes sense?

If you tell me: “You‘re the new primary care doc of this patient, this is your first conversation with them and your task is to talk about an advance care directive“ maybe dont tell the actor to block off any coversation on this topic?

In real life, I would NOT press this issue on the very first appointment, especially not if the patient

1. was taken aback when I introduced myself as her new primary care doc (We‘ll see about that! That‘s still my decision to make after all.) - I managed that situation well, but still, not the best start

2. was clearly not amused that her daughter had asked about her and wanted to speak to me (again info I was given beforehand) and said daughter had already pressured her to make a living will - I‘m not conspiring against you with your daughter, I swear!

3. had different, important topics to talk about

I would have loved to talk to her about her meds and her general situation and just get to know her. But if you tell me the living will is my MAIN task, you give me ten minutes, the patient blocks off completely, speaks without pause about other stuff and then you criticize me for interrupting her (If I hadn‘t, I couldn‘t have said a single word, I didn‘t even finish on time as it was) and for trying to get her to talk about a living will (that was literally my task)...

Honestly, that‘s just not helpful. If it hadn‘t been my explicit task, I wouldn‘t have pressed that point in the first place. Not on the first meeting. I get these conversations are supposed to be difficult, but I‘m also supposed to learn something from the feedback. I still don‘t know what my professor wanted me to do. I still don‘t know how I could‘ve handled that situation any better, except wait for her to trust me, get to know her, and then breach that topic again. Which I would‘ve done anyway if it wasn‘t for that specification.