What's up, (future) doc?: a Blogterview series

As a medical professional myself, I have come across numerous medical professionals throughout my university years and in my current career. It always interests me how each person's point of view differs when it comes to their chosen profession, and how it plays out in their real lives. 

TV shows such as Grey's Anatomy, E.R., Scrubs, Nurse Jackie and Casualty portrays the 'hospital' setting as a 'glammed-up' job with sexy perks on the side. Don't get me started on how some would react knowing that I am a male 'nurse.' 

These are just SOME of the googled images of a 'nurse.'
I haven't tried them on yet.

I have caught up with one of my friends, which I shall give an online name of Dr. Z, and would feature him on a blogterview series. This is just to show how our professionals came to be, and how great it would be to appreciate the challenges and the hardships along their way. And sometimes, just to realise and remember, they are not so different from the rest of us too.

Dr. Z has finished his 1st year at the University, and I asked him about his thoughts and ideas on his 1st year of placement. He started working on a hospital ward as a healthcare assistant to get an actual medical-related experience. It really helped him a lot during his placement as a medical student. Therefore giving him a unique perspective from two different yet similar point-of-views.

Here are some of his statements (I tried to edit out some cuss-words, but this is as raw and real as it could get):

'I didn't like how people seemed to treat me differently on my first placement as a med student when I was a HCA (*HealthCare Assistant) a few months ago.' 

These are all true and would sound too obvious. But it is amazing how a person would treat another just by stature or 'position' alone.

'The med students are all scared and awkward on wards.'

This is perhaps applicable to any 'rookie', but it's no wonder Medical TV Shows portray this scenario as a comic relief.

Here's where I am mostly interested in when he told me about this particular experience:

'I offered to fill a patients water jug up and he said, ‘No, I will get the nurses to do it.’ And I felt sad that i was suddenly being treated differently.  

Just because I had a white shirt and polished shoes, rather than the ‘blues.’(*Blues- the uniform colour most nurses are known for.)  

I got upset and wanted to fill his water jug up.  I thought ‘I’ll get the nurse’ would have referred to me not long ago.'

Maybe it is nice for the patient to treat the medical students properly and not bother them with 'simple things.' But on the other side of the coin, the 'simple things' that the patients expect for the nurses to accomplish just sounds absurd, but in reality it does happen. Most of the time the 'blues', or the nurses are expected to be 'genies' to have a cure-all for everything.

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What do you think of Dr. Z's thoughts and ideas? Any reactions or suggestions that I should ask him the next time?  (Sorry, I won't provide his real name and photo, guys and girls)

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