22 Comments
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Susan Scheid's avatar

Wonderful post, once again, and yup, you got a VERY high compliment with “My faith in the medical system was in the gutter before you. You made me think maybe not all doctors are full of shit.” ❤️❤️❤️

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Zed Zha, MD (she/her)'s avatar

LOL I figured!! Best comment from a patient!

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Helen Scott Davis's avatar

If only more physicians treated others so humanely. I’m lucky to currently have doctors that are good and I feel comfortable with, but that has not always been the case. When it isn’t the case, it’s time to find a new doctor. You are to be commended for the time you take and the compassion you show your patients.

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Zed Zha, MD (she/her)'s avatar

Thank you! Though I definitely didn't use to be like this. Fresh out of training I was more doctor than human. Now I think I am more human than doctor.

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Sucheta Potnis's avatar

The most fundamental truth is that you cannot be a good doctor 'unless' you are a good human being. So being a human and being a doctor aren't mutually exclusive, in fact it is very much a requirement!

I love reading your thoughts.

Thank you for taking the time to write so we can see the human from the other side of the stirrups.

Respect!

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Zed Zha, MD (she/her)'s avatar

🥹🥹🥹🩵🩵🩵🩵

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Helen Scott Davis's avatar

As the song goes, “it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish”. The lack of humanity to medical students while teaching the practice of medicine simply shows that the problem is systemic. At the end of the day, just as it is up to you to learn that practice, it’s up to you to learn how to put that knowledge into action. Cycles don’t have to repeat.

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Ellen Barry's avatar

Please go teach this to medical students, then again to the interns , and again to the residents. Then go find the hospitalist who glosses over every patient comment bc his interest is in doc schedules and open beds and insurance coverage. Docs need to hear this, over and over.

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Zed Zha, MD (she/her)'s avatar

on it!

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Linda Lehmann's avatar

It’s because you are a woman mostly. I have had rude and incompetent women doctors but the men were/are the worst. I systematically have replaced the males with women. My grown son has also changed all his doctors to women. He says too they listen!! Thanks for being a great woman doctor.

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Kim Vale's avatar

Come to Canada! Seriously! And bring your mom!🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

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Zed Zha, MD (she/her)'s avatar

LOL My mama and I would make a good contribution to the country LOL

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Meg Smythe's avatar

Every time you write, it brings tears to my eyes, which causes me so much physical pain. But I keep reading you; guess you’re worth it.

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Zed Zha, MD (she/her)'s avatar

<3333333333333

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Nancy E. Holroyd, RN's avatar

You make time. Patients feel seen and heard. There need to be more physicians like you.

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Zed Zha, MD (she/her)'s avatar

Thank you Nancy. <3

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Judy Jennings's avatar

Apprecate your humane voice in a struggling healthcare system.

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Dana Fleder's avatar

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your compassion and your determination! What a gift you gave this woman. Gifts actually—your kindness, your intuition, your respect, your patience, your expertise, your laughter & humor, AND the correct diagnosis & treatment!

You rock! 🎸

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Cris's avatar

Nice write up, have had a few of those over the last 25 yrs. Gotta love those door hangers statements like hallway medicine. W thanks. 🙏 Blessings 🙏

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Moveable Garden's avatar

Thank you for listening, caring, and helping your patient(s) feel that you're a safe and receptive place for their physical concerns and emotional embarrassment. Your colleague's response lacked the understanding that for some of us, going to the doctor and feeling comfortable with him or her takes a lot of courage, strength, hope, and effort, just to make the appointment and actually go to it, and if you tell a patient to come back later with something they obviously finally feel they can talk to you about NOW, you're unlikely to ever see them again.

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Zed Zha, MD (she/her)'s avatar

very very good point!

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Plum's avatar

I hope to find a doctor like you. I’ve been bullied so many times by hurried, insensitive doctors in the last decade, I’ve almost given up. I used to have a wonderful primary care doctor at Kaiser Permanente in Long Beach, CA, but we moved. No such luck in our next city. Now we’ve moved again and I’m hoping I’ll have better luck here. Doctors are just not allowed to doctor anymore and that’s a large part of the problem.

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