How important is the use of color in patient care?

[Gallivant]

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When a physician practices medicine how often does he or she use color to evaluate or diagnose a patient. I'm moderately colorblind specifically with brown/red/green and purple/blue. To explain, when I see some shades of brown/red/green or purple/blue I am not able to identify what color it is specifically. I can tell the differences in lightness and darkness but I can't identify the color with accuracy. I was wondering what kind of challenges I will face in the near future when I become a medical student, resident, and practicing physician. I'm interested in surgery.

 

[Bacchus]

I've only used color while on peds to assess milestones. Tools aren't color coded. You refer to them by name, not color. You should be fine, I'd think.

 

[Wisco1]

this website should help answer your question:
http://www.colourmed.com/

 

[Verum]

this website should help answer your question:
http://www.colourmed.com/

Wow, there is a Xmed website for everything.

 

[armybound]

It won't be that big of an issue. I have the same problem but it has not been an issue.

 

[BigRedBeta]

One of my fellow residents had significant color blindness issues, to the point that she frequently asked for help when looking at our triage boards in the ER (thus knowing which patient had higher acuity and needed to be seen first), and with clothing choices. I don't think she suffered any particular setbacks because of it. I could see that if you ended up at a residency that required you to do most of your own blood draws, differentiating between the different vials (purple top vs blue top), however, you can always read the labels.

 

[Gallivant]

Thanks for the input its very encouraging.