Varied Responses

Many lessons learned this past week during the “informed consent” portion of our internship with the horses. It is interesting to see emerging both student and horse personalities.

The task at hand was to lead the horse over a shiny, crinkly mylar space blanket. Add to this mild yet stormy weather and a good size human audience and you’ve got some varied responses from our horse “patients”. It was interesting to watch the different approaches. So many lessons were learned in this small space of time! When I attempt to relate this to patient care I am reminded there are many facets to these relationships. What is the clinician’s end goal? What is the patient’s perception of how necessary a test or procedure is? Is the trust established to date enough of a motivator to convince a patient to move forward? Is that trust built on reputation, intimidation or mutual respect? Finally, if a patient declines care, how much of that responsibility should the clinician absorb?

Of the three horses, one examined the blanket by pawing and studying it first before going over. This was impressive! He wanted to figure it out himself. The next horse was fine walking on it but not if we walked on it first and reminded her of the noise it made. The last horse despite much effort just wasn’t having it. These scenarios were such a great representation of how different patients might react to the same situation. You have your investigative patient, your committed but don't remind me what it is going to be like patient and finally your non-compliant (at least for now) one. What a great learning experience!

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