How To Become A Medical Team Player

How To Become A Medical Team Player

Quoted with permission of the Rosen Publishing Group.

1. Listen to your body. What hurts, what's different, what feels great? Tired? Sleep! Overweight? Watch the calories! Weak? Exercise, slowly at first, but do it!

2.	Understand that every medical person is a person. He or she has a
	family, a job, and even gets sick sometimes.

3. Learn about your condition, your handicap in life. Read. Study. Become an expert on your disease, your challenge. You will understand the doctors better and gain a sense of understanding and control of your case and your life.

4. Write questions in a special notebook you can take with you every time you visit the doctor or clinic or rehabilitation center. Remember to ask the questions, and write down the answers so that you can refer to them at home. Often a visit to a medical facility is confusing and this keeps things clear.

5. When you have become good at asking questions, be sure to tell the medical people how you feel about certain things. If a new procedure hurts, yell out! Say so if a new piece of equipment, such as a brace or prosthesis, does not feel just right. Explain what is wrong so they can try to fix it. These medical people are there to help you have a better life, but they cannot read your mind. Get a problem solved fast by talking it out right away.

6. After a while, if someone on your medical team is not cooperative when you ask questions, consider getting another team member. You are the boss. You and your family are the ones who have to live with what the team does. When you spend a lot of time with people, trying to understand and get along, you can expect them to listen and try to understand you. If that is not happening, ask questions, point out the problem to a trusted member of the team, and see to it that you don't have to go through any more unpleasant experiences. You're the one trying to get help; you don't have to take poor treatment.

7.	If you find yourself firing your medical team, learn from the
	experience. Go shopping for another doctor. Ask specific questions

about the way he or she treats people like you. Don't be afraid to go to more than one doctor. (Or therapist, psychologist, or prosthetist. ed.) That is a sign of a smart person, an educated person. If a doctor does not like you getting second opinions, you need to fire him or her, too! There is no time in your life for people who do not treat you well and with respect, no matter what your age.

8. COOPERATE! Follow the prescribed medications, diets, exercises, and other orders of the team you have chosen. Thinking and asking questions does not mean skipping instructions and doctoring yourself. Remember that you are on a team. All of you must do your best to make your life the best it can be. Try to trust the people you have chosen. No need to complain all the time unless your life takes a clear turn for the worse.

9. Think of your visit with your medical team as a chance to learn as well as a time-out. Perhaps you can have a special breakfast or lunch before or after your appointment. Turn the day into an outing with the person who goes with you. A day out of school can be a breath of fresh air. Discuss your questions over a frozen yogurt shake or some other treat. You deserve it!

10. Try to think of your office or clinic visits as chances to meet other people with similar challenges. Waiting rooms can be places to learn and make new friends. Ask someone interesting looking if they've ever had one of the problems you've come across. Try!

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A partnership can be described as a relationship between two or more highly communicative people, in which all are joined together in an effort to attain a common goal. A "team" can be defined in the same way. The common goal of your medical team, with you as the leader, should be to select and implement the treatments that are the best for you!