"Observed something unethical" Secondary Essay Prompt

[tiny turtle]

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Hi I'm trying to write a response to a prompt that asks me to describe a situation in which I observed something in ethical, what my response was, and what I would do differently. I want to talk about a situation where I saw a doctor do something that I thought was unethical (disrespectful to a patient's culture), but I don't want to seem like I'm passing judgment on a doctor/acting like an expert when I'm just a lowly pre-med. At the same time, I didn't do anything in response to the situation since I was just shadowing, and I don't want to be viewed negatively for failing to respond when I thought a patient was being wronged. (especially because the scenario occurred pretty recently like within the past year or so)

Does anyone have advice about this?

 

[993444]

If you deal solely with disrespect to the culture and clearly transparent on this, you would be fine

Even then, I think some app readers might be turned off that OP is criticizing a physician's behavior. It seems too high risk....

 

[Tenk]

Change physician to some other profession and you’re fine. If you change it to chiropractor or nurse practitioner you may even get bonus points.

 

[tiny turtle]

If you deal solely with disrespect to the culture and clearly transparent on this, you would be fine

What do you mean by "dealing solely with disrespect to the culture"? Do you mean leaving out commentary about medical care and such?

 

[tiny turtle]

Change physician to some other profession and you’re fine. If you change it to chiropractor or nurse practitioner you may even get bonus points.

Hmmm lying on an essay about ethics

 

[Tenk]

Hmmm lying on an essay about ethics

We do it all the time as physicians to protect patient information. In this case you’re protecting doctor information. You’re just that ethical!

 

[tiny turtle]

We do it all the time as physicians to protect patient information. In this case you’re protecting doctor information. You’re just that ethical!

Wow you're right! Mental gymnastics is my favorite olympic sport

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Wow you're right! Mental gymnastics is my favorite olympic sport

Lol must be hard getting through doorways with how high of a horse you're riding.

 

[tiny turtle]

Lol must be hard getting through doorways with how high of a horse you're riding.

Wait lol... I thought Tenk was being jokingly sarcastic so I was also trying to be jokingly sarcastic. But maybe I misinterpreted? Sorry if that was genuine advice! @Tenk

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Wait lol... I thought Tenk was being jokingly sarcastic so I was also trying to be jokingly sarcastic. But maybe I misinterpreted? Sorry if that was genuine advice! @Tenk

Lol nope I misinterpreted. Sarcasm doesn't travel well on the internet, and it wouldn't be the first time a pre-med tried to be holier than thou to an attending in pre-allo. The mistake is mine.

And he was being serious. Physicians will change small details like that in certain scenarios to protect patients.

 

[907914]

Wait lol... I thought Tenk was being jokingly sarcastic so I was also trying to be jokingly sarcastic. But maybe I misinterpreted? Sorry if that was genuine advice! @Tenk

Did you talk about patients in any of your primary? You used a pseudonym, right? Is that lying?

you can change details of the specifics of the stories in your secondaries in order to either protect identity or anonymize the actual event. So long as the story is internally consistent and you are able to continue to talk about it in a credible manner in a detail (like, you aren’t making anything up just changing things around a bit) then it is still fine methinks. As the attendings have said they do the patients^^^

 

[tiny turtle]

Did you talk about patients in any of your primary? You used a pseudonym, right? Is that lying?

you can change details of the specifics of the stories in your secondaries in order to either protect identity or anonymize the actual event. So long as the story is internally consistent and you are able to continue to talk about it in a credible manner in a detail (like, you aren’t making anything up just changing things around a bit) then it is still fine methinks. As the attendings have said they do the patients^^^

I see what you're saying but I guess the ethical difference is that you use pseudonyms to protect patients, whereas changing "physician" to "nurse practitioner" has a more selfish motivation of trying to make myself look better? I guess it's not a huge deal, IDK. I'm probably just going to say "health care professional" in my essay.

 

[907914]

I see what you're saying but I guess the ethical difference is that you use pseudonyms to protect patients, whereas changing "physician" to "nurse practitioner" has a more selfish motivation of trying to make myself look better? I guess it's not a huge deal, IDK. I'm probably just going to say "health care professional" in my essay.

As long as the details are internally consistent and you can talk about it maintaining internal consistency during interviews, then you got t.

 

[Tenk]

Wait lol... I thought Tenk was being jokingly sarcastic so I was also trying to be jokingly sarcastic. But maybe I misinterpreted? Sorry if that was genuine advice! @Tenk

Most of my posts are partly serious, partly joking. The chiropractor/NP was a joke, obviously.

I'd point to Gonnif's post though above mine. Focus on the unethical behavior and less about who did it or why. These prompts are more about your ability to convey information than the actual information you are describing.

 

[IMGASMD]

Health care setting. Physicians office staff. Health care provider. Any of these will get you out.... keep that part vague. “During the encounter I observed....”

The second part of it, most of us will understand that you can’t do anything as a student....