Education - Corpus

“Life in day-tight compartments”: Osler on doctor wellbeing

13 November 2017 1 Comment

Sue Wootton

Doctor wellbeing has been in the news lately, with the recent ratification by the World Medical Association of a new clause to the Declaration of Geneva (the modern Hippocratic Oath). The change was proposed and promoted by Queentown’s Dr Sam Hazledine, following concern at the very high level of burnout experienced by doctors. The old clause read, “The health of my patient will be my first consideration.” The new clause reads:

I will attend to my own health, wellbeing and abilities in order to provide care of the highest standard.”

Blue devils

2 October 2017 1 Comment

Alannah Tompkins

Mental health problems among medical practitioners are a touchy subject. There has been research on anxiety, depression, and burnout in different occupations, and medicine has come in for its share of attention, but it is a difficult topic to address in the present given twenty-first century aspirations to seemingly infallible practice. It is reassuring, I hope, to learn that we can also study the phenomenon in the past and realise that infallibility or perfection is a myth in medical practice; current practitioners might take comfort from predecessors who were human first, and qualified doctors second.

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Out of the box: memoir of a trainee nurse, Dunedin Hospital 1884

2 October 2017 Leave a Comment

M. H. Fraser

Rachael Francis, Historian in Residence at the Pioneer Women’s Hall, Dunedin, and a box of treasure.

Dunedin’s Pioneer Women’s Hall, set up in 1942 in a former lawyer’s office in Moray Place, was the end result of a project initiated by Dr Emily Siedeberg, New Zealand’s first woman doctor. Envisaged as both a monument to the city’s foremothers and a centre for women’s activities, it remains in use by various community groups today. Recently, historian-in-residence Rachael Francis has been delving into the boxes of memorabilia stored in the hall. One of her finds is this memoir by M. H. Fraser, one of the first nurse trainees at Dunedin Hospital in 1884. Fifty years later, in 1934, Nurse Fraser wrote the following memoir about her experiences.

Nurse training [in 1884], by M. H. Fraser

Towards the end of 1884, the trustees of Dunedin Hospital realised that their nursing needs could no longer be met by stray trained nurses visiting the town and by untrained people. The men patients were nursed by untrained men, the women and children depended mostly on the visitors, some of whom had come in search of healthcare for themselves. In our home, a friend was being nursed after a major operation … and the nurse in charge was visited by a trained nurse, who was temporarily employed in the hospital. She brought news of the Trust’s decision [to train nurses] and turning to me said, “You are the type. Why not apply?”

This appealed to me at once and it was decided that I should write to the secretary, Mr Burns … A week later saw me in harness.

Understanding Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

25 September 2017 2 Comments

Dr Rosamund Vallings

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (known as ME/CFS) is a complex acquired condition. Sufferers experience a range of debilitating symptoms, including fatigue, and problems with pain, gut function, brain function, immune, cardiac and endocrine systems. Dr Rosamund Vallings has been treating and researching ME/CFS for over 25 years. Here she describes what drew her to this work, and where the research is heading.

I qualified in medicine from the London Hospital Medical College in 1961. This was followed by house surgeon appointments in Plymouth, Devon and the London Hospital. I then set off to New Zealand as a Ship’s Doctor with Port Line, spending some time in NZ, before returning again as Ship’s Doctor to England to marry one of the officers. We settled in England for 2 years and during that time I worked in Family Planning developing an interest in Women’s Health. Then it was back to NZ with our first 2 babies.

We settled in NZ, had a third child, and I initially continued to work in Family Planning and built up a small General Practice focusing on female hormone disorders.

Anatomy nesting dolls

11 September 2017 1 Comment

Kezia Field

The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.” Leonardo da Vinci

For years, as as an art educator and artist, I’ve had an ongoing preoccupation with body parts, especially with anatomical systems and human organs as artistic imagery. This fascination has lead me to research a variety of vintage anatomical illustrations by scientific and medical artists such as Georg Stubbs, William Braune, Nicolas Henri Jacob, Anton Nuhn and Leonardo da Vinci.

These illustrators were professional artists with advanced education in both the life sciences and visual communication. I like the idea that these artists collaborated with scientists and physicians, and that they transformed complex visual information into visual images with potential to communicate to broad audiences. As digital photography and other digital media have come to dominate the medical illustration world, the demand for these artists has declined. So, I say to myself, perhaps my art can fill this void.

Navigating the entangled and “infuriatingly intricate” world

11 September 2017 1 Comment

Sue Wootton

Consider the term ‘medical science’. Easy. For most of us it conjures laboratories, test-tubes, scientists in white coats, evidence-based research, miracle medical breakthroughs. Medical science trips off the tongue so naturally – it’s surely one word, not two. The bond between ‘medical’ and ‘science’ is super-glued. It’s solid and unbreakable. We’ve closed the gap between these words, left no cracks to fall through. Medical science: a term to lean on, a term to trust.

Now consider the term ‘medical humanities’. Not so easy. Or so I surmise from the confused look on people’s faces when I tell them that the medical humanities are my field of research. It’s as if the words ‘medical’ and ‘humanities’ are unrelated strangers who need to be coaxed from separate, distant rooms and forced together for an awkward conversation where neither can quite understand the other’s language or point of view. What on earth would they talk about? What would be the point? What’s the use of the medical humanities? Where’s the miracle medical breakthrough in that research?