Useful pointers

Just some pointers I'd like to share from my experience:

Dear patients... (and relatives)

1. You are not the only patient in the hospital who us doctors look after. We usually have 30 ++ other patients besides you; some who are sicker than you and require more complex management plans.

Therefore:
- please be patient and wait your turn (even kids know how to wait their turns) for the doctors team to come and see you. Yes the doctors start ward rounds at 9.00am but it could be 4pm before we get to you because we had to see the other urgent cases first
- don't fly off your handle and get angry with other doctors just because the team who looks after you hasn't come and seen you... we cannot control when the senior doctors come. We just look after acute problems on the ward. We can give you painkillers if you need them. But with regards to the problem you came in for; you have to wait for the specialists to come, okay?
- If you see doctors sitting down and having a break; it does not mean we are lazy or slacking. Sometimes we do not have lunch at all or even a toilet break. So give us a few minutes to rest. I know you get to lie down in bed and get your meals on a regular basis so please give us some thought too, thanks. 
- On the weekend, most doctors and services are not available so many of the things planned for you have to be delayed until Monday. Yes I work on the weekend but I cannot do an Echo for you or call the stoma nurse coz they do not come to work. It is not my (freaking) fault that the hospital stops on weekends. So please do not scold the doctors working on weekends by accusing them of "not doing anything".

2. Please be aware that when we send your blood for tests, it takes time for the results to come back. If it is urgent we do call the lab for interim results. So if we don't, that means it wasn't urgent or life threatening. The same goes with imaging.

Therefore,
-please don't pester us about your blood/xray results, we do check them so please don't worry too much about it. How quickly they come back is not in our control... if you have issues please tell Pathology/Radiology and not be unhappy with us doctors instead. it is not a sign of our incompetence
- please keep in mind that just because a blood test comes back abnormal it doesn't mean that we always have to fix it. Our job is to treat you; not the blood test. If your symptoms do not correlate with the blood test then we usually ignore the blood test.

3. You have full autonomy in your care. If you are a doctor/nurse or if your relative is one; please keep your patient/relative shoes on and leave your doctor/nurse shoes at home. The purpose you are in hospital is so you can be treated. If you could treat yourself, you wouldn't have to come in.

Therefore,
- please respect the doctors' teams advice, by all means ask questions and challenge us if you are not happy, but let doctors do their jobs
- the hospital's guidelines might differ from other hospitals or countries or regions and as doctors were are obliged to follow those guidelines even though you (as a doctor/nurse) had practiced it differently in your career
- just because you/relative is/was a doctor/nurse doesn't mean you get special treatment. You can't just request for a senior doctor to put a cannula in you. It doesn't work that way. I know junior doctors like me sometimes can't get it in and would jab you a few times but that's the way the ball rolls. You can't jump the gun.

Yours sincerely,
Junior Doctor