The Student Room Group

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Reply 20
Phalanges
Acute vs Chronic? :unsure:


Layman's terms? :mute:
win2kpro
Layman's terms? :mute:

An illness is acute if it's brought on suddenly, and chronic if it's long-lasting/recurrent.
Reply 22
Phalanges
An illness is acute if it's brought on suddenly, and chronic if it's long-lasting/recurrent.


Thanks - now I know :proud:
Reply 23
MessyEater
My GP is colourblind! I've got no problem with it. But when he needs a second opinion on something he struggles to see, he just asks the GP next door to him and I haven't got a problem with that either. I'd rather he do that then keep quiet, try to diagnose me but get it wrong. Not to say that you would!!


If you are doing house-calls to patient it may be in poor lighting and you'd have no doctor to help you look at a rash, it could be a difficult situation, don't you think?

...If you have blood in your stools do you go to the GP or a surgeon?...


Having protanopia means that red and brown are the same colour to me, if I were your GP and had to try and spot blood in your stool, it would be an almost impossible task!
Chilledice
If you are doing house-calls to patient it may be in poor lighting and you'd have no doctor to help you look at a rash, it could be a difficult situation, don't you think?


My point was just that, being aware of the situation there are ways around it. Yeah there'll be some problematic situations but it'd be the same for a dyslexic doctor or one hard of hearing no?
Being colourblind is not the end of your medical dreams!

I didn't even think doctors did house calls anymore? I have a vision of the Outer Hebrides or something with one doctor between the entire population who drives about in his land rover and a flat cap. Hmmmm.
Reply 25
Chilledice
If you are doing house-calls to patient it may be in poor lighting and you'd have no doctor to help you look at a rash, it could be a difficult situation, don't you think?


That seems like a bit of a convoluted difficult situation! :p:
House calls?
Poor lighting - house with no electric lights? No pen torch? No out-of-hours driver with a car with a light?
No-one else who could confirm whether there is a rash or not? Mute patient, no family, no driver?
& a GP doing OOH where the finer details of how precisely a rash looks is vital to the immediate management? Rash or no rash. Likely sinister or harmless (as far as I'd think about it other things like history, systems examination then presence/absence of a rash, location & other features e.g. skin integrity would weigh up together as more helpful than just 2D colour appearance) = emergency hospital or no hospital...


MessyEater

Yeah there'll be some problematic situations but it'd be the same for a dyslexic doctor or one hard of hearing no?


I actually think those other two examples could be more problematic in day to day practise - less obvious & less clearly defined limitations.


I'm also pondering where all the GPs who spend their lives poo-visualizing are! Dipsticks & faecal occult blood tests. :wink: Even gastroenterologists can get it wrong just on looks - melaena v. ferrous oxide v. C. Diff etc.
Reply 26
MessyEater
My point was just that, being aware of the situation there are ways around it. Yeah there'll be some problematic situations but it'd be the same for a dyslexic doctor or one hard of hearing no?
Being colourblind is not the end of your medical dreams!

I didn't even think doctors did house calls anymore? I have a vision of the Outer Hebrides or something with one doctor between the entire population who drives about in his land rover and a flat cap. Hmmmm.


The GP I shadowed did housecalls, admittedly it was in a village that was designed for the terminally ill, who are unable or unwilling to go to the practice... It was in a sports-car though, of course :p:

I don't think colour blindness has quashed my dream, but it will definitely need to be considered whenever colour is needed in diagnosis and when I decide what to specialise in!

Elles
That seems like a bit of a convoluted difficult situation! :p:
House calls?
Poor lighting - house with no electric lights? No pen torch? No out-of-hours driver with a car with a light?
No-one else who could confirm whether there is a rash or not? Mute patient, no family, no driver?
& a GP doing OOH where the finer details of how precisely a rash looks is vital to the immediate management? Rash or no rash. Likely sinister or harmless (as far as I'd think about it other things like history, systems examination, presence of a rash, location & other features e.g. skin integrity would weigh up together as more helpful than just 2D colour appearance) = emergency hospital or no hospital...



I'm also pondering where all the GPs who spend their lives poo-visualizing are! Dipsticks & faecal occult blood tests. :wink: Even gastroenterologists can get it wrong just on looks - melaena v. ferrous oxide v. C. Diff etc.


You make a good point, other doctors who are colour-blind have coped, I'm sure I will do to! It's hardly a crippling disability to be colour-blind!
Reply 27
MessyEater

I didn't even think doctors did house calls anymore? I have a vision of the Outer Hebrides or something with one doctor between the entire population who drives about in his land rover and a flat cap. Hmmmm.

All the GP practices I've been a student at have done house calls, usually in the gap between morning and afternoon surgery. But generally only if the patient is too sick to get into the practice itself.