Srsly: Any "germaphobe" phyisicians?

[fluoropHore]

Serious question here (this might be more appropriate for med forum): Are any physicians/med students ever afraid of catching their patients illnesses (esp in Internal Med)? Minor colds, flus, infectious diseases, whathaveyou. I have a rational? fear of catching illnesses and my own PCP is sometimes sick "from work." I don't want to be the Monk of medicine.

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[Dr Oops]

Serious question here (this might be more appropriate for med forum): Are any physicians/med students ever afraid of catching their patients illnesses (esp in Internal Med)? Minor colds, flus, infectious diseases, whathaveyou. I have a rational? fear of catching illnesses and my own PCP is sometimes sick "from work." I don't want to be the Monk of medicine.

well its never fun when your listening to someones heart and they decide to cough in your face. It depends on how bad your fear is. Even if you do radiology there will be at least 2 years where you have to see patients. There is a the very real possibility you will get sick from one of your patients. You either gotta power through or find another field.

 

[nzder]

You cannot be afraid to touch and examine your patients. Many diseases are not contagious. Plus you're supposed to have immunizations, use protection, Purell, wash your hands etc.

In medical school you will be required to touch and probe a dead body and cut it all up. You ready for that??

 

[fluoropHore]

Oh Im not saying I'm squeamish, I just was wondering if docs ever get sick more often than the general public due to exposure?

 

[MedPR]

Oh Im not saying I'm squeamish, I just was wondering if docs ever get sick more often than the general public due to exposure?

Doctors should have better personal hygiene than the average person. Also, depending on your specialty, you may not see many patients with contagious illness.

 

[pfaction]

I had a person with active TB walk into our clinic once. That was fun.

 

[franco655]

i am a germaphobe and want to be a family doc. i plan on getting around this by doing tel-a-medicine

 

[chiddler]

Doc i shadowed joked that one of the perks of being a health care worker is that you are exposed to so many different germs, that you develop some good resistance. God's gift to overworked primary care docs lol

And to more directly respond to OP, this seems ridiculous. Medicine is studying diseases, illnesses, and being around people. It seems obvious that germophobes would do anything BUT becoming a doctor.

I don't mean to discourage you - i'm just another stupid premed. But it just seems counter-intuitive.

 

[costales]

How many doctors have contracted the HIV or SARS virus? Not many. How many doctors have contracted the cold virus? Plenty - from their own kids, probably. When dealing with certain patients, you have to use precautions (but you can't act like you're afraid of them).

 

[hiyaman]

No I don't worry about that kind of stuff because I feel indestructible.

 

[AnthonyTaylor]

Universal precautions. They will reduce you chances of being infected by a great deal. If this causes you severe anxiety, I would say to stay away from it.

 

[peppy]

I think it's good to be a little germaphobic if it helps you remember to wash your hands in between patients. If you're careful about washing your hands in between patients and before eating/rubbing your eyes/etc. that will go a long way towards cutting down on the risk of catching garden variety illnesses like colds (I strongly recommend getting a flu shot every year too).

Unfortunately, I did feel like I caught illnesses more often during my time on inpatient medicine wards than I do on outpatient psych. It's not easy to totally avoid it when you're constantly around people with infectious illnesses... but I wouldn't say that it was such a common thing that it was really any sort of big deal. Just a minor annoyance really.

 

[MRSAful Fate]

Anecdotally, I currently have a cold that my wife infected me with after picking it up on her pediatric rotation. If you are so germaphobic that being around sick people freaks you out you may want to reexamine going into medicine. Like if you plan on doing telemedicine to avoid contact with patients - you realize that 3rd and 4th year + residency will be face to face right?

 

[sausalito]

I'm not too worried due to the fact that, as aforementioned, many precautions are taken at hospitals. I've been volunteering at an ICU for months now and have never been sick. I volunteered at a preschool and caught meningitis my first week (lucky me?).

 

[DrMediterranean]

Oh Im not saying I'm squeamish, I just was wondering if docs ever get sick more often than the general public due to exposure?

Yep, of course. Your body eventually gets used to the settings you work in. But that's what healthcare is all about. There are plenty of risks involved. I would never ever want to be a general surgeon (especially in a urban setting). You have to operate on so many high-risk patients (HIV, Hep C, etc.) all the time. One tiny mistake can cause exposure. The truth is even in the hospital setting just because a patient's chart doesn't mention any contact precautions for lets say MRSA, CDIFF, XDR or blood precautions like HIV, HepC doesn't mean that they don't have these bugs/viruses. Sometimes the hospital doesn't even know because it isn't on record and they had no reason to be tested for it. Not trying to scare you, but this is the truth, and every field has its risks. This is all but one of the many sacrifices you make by going into medicine. You have to realize too that it could be much worse. Nurses/nursing assistants have MUCH more exposure to the patients (I have been a nursing assistant for years). I have dealt with some horrible sh** (pun intended). The worst smell in the world is probably a GI bleed (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you will eventually). Be happy that as a doc that you don't have to worry about cleaning that up like the nursing staff.

 

[Whistle]

I'm applying this cycle, but am currently a case manager and I see a lot of homeless and almost homeless and so many people come in with some serious medical issues. One guy, we thought he had urinated himself, but his legs were pretty much rotting off and they were leaking through his pants. (I pretty much made him go with the paramedics) And in this profession, people like to shake hands and hug when you help them out. Anyway, I've never gotten sick. Just take precautions and you should be fine. Needless to say, I use a lot of hand sanitizer lol

 

[IDBasco]

I got a worse flu in 2nd year than anything I had in years 3 or 4.

 

[fluoropHore]

ha, ok thanks everyone.

 

[OPS18]

Most of the docs that I know are big time germaphobes

 

[CopToEM]

Along these same lines... I know of a physician who developed an allergy to most hygiene products. Deodorants, perfumes, etc. Set him off so bad he couldn't stop sneezing for days. Made for an incredibly difficult time to practice clinical medicine.

He ended up quitting his stateside practice for the most part and doing medical mission work in third world countries where the use of those kinds of products is not nearly as high.

 

[MRSAful Fate]

Along these same lines... I know of a physician who developed an allergy to most hygiene products. Deodorants, perfumes, etc. Set him off so bad he couldn't stop sneezing for days. Made for an incredibly difficult time to practice clinical medicine.

He ended up quitting his stateside practice for the most part and doing medical mission work in third world countries where the use of those kinds of products is not nearly as high.

Holy crap that would suck.

 

[Constance]

I am a Critical Care RN and I work with an Infectious Disease MD who is a total germaphobe. I am not making this up. He is afraid to go into most of the patients' rooms, so he just looks at their lab results on the computer, asks the nurses how the patients are doing and writes orders in the chart and runs out of the hospital.