Why I Love Medicine

On my call night, I was cross-covering a bunch of patients I did not know. A nurse paged me saying that a patient wanted to leave "AMA" - against medical advice. Multiple staff members had tried to convince her to stay but she was adamant on leaving. As the covering doctor, I was the last-ditch effort to keep her from going. But of course, I had no relationship with this woman; I'd never met her and knew only the medical problems scribbled within two lines on the sign-out.

I sat with her. I held her hand and listened. They teach us to do this as medical students, and somewhere it escapes us. Although both she and I knew that I was there to read her the "AMA" form and have her sign it, I didn't want to do that. I did what anyone else could - acknowledge her feelings and try to understand why she felt mistreated by the system. I apologized as best I could. I offered to fax any medications she needed, offered to call a cab to get her home, and told her that our doors were open if she had to come back. I stood up, shook her hand again, and when I turned to the door, she told me she'd stay. It was a wonderful feeling, trying to create a trust and rapport in 10 minutes amid the chaos of a call day, and it felt good when it worked.