Subscribe to one of our news e-mail lists. Physicians can only learn so much from books, journals, classrooms and computers.
Someone has to be their first patient for every procedure.
This includes everything from taking a medical history, to drawing blood, to performing more complex and invasive procedures. But there is a practice in medicine where new and inexperienced doctors may learn by working with patients who have recently died or are not expected to recover. A survey examining this little-known aspect of medical training was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and it found that it is not at all uncommon. I'd just as soon my doctor practiced on someone else first. And when it comes to more invasive procedures, there are even special mannequins for practicing drawing blood or inserting tubes.