Danielle Ofri, M.D. is the author of What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect The Practice Of Medicine. This was a fascinating book. Danielle writes about her own training and experiences and also the experiences of several other doctors. She writes about some of her mistakes and the dressing down she got for making them. For one patient who was in diabetic ketoacidosis, she forgot to start a long acting insulin before she turned off the quick acting insulin. With minutes the patient was back in diabetic ketoacidosis. This is a mistake she never made again. Feeling ashamed makes you learn your lesson well. She mentions a study about empathy. Participants in the study were tested by electronic reading in their brain so that their oral answers were not needed. The test was to see if they empathized with seeing the image of a person getting pricked with a needle in the skin between the thumb and the pointer finger. If a white person saw a white hand getting pricked they empathized. If a white person saw a black hand getting pricked they did not emphasize. If a black person saw a black hand getting pricked they emphasized. If a black person saw a white hand getting pricked they did not emphasize. If a black or white person saw a violet hand getting pricked, they emphasized. The author writes about how it feels to be sued tor medical malpractice. She writes about how the behavior of doctors changed after being sued for malpractice. They order more tests which is not always a good thing. It was interesting to read about how the hidden emotional responses of doctors can influence their patients.
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