Deafblind Doctor Says Colleagues Have Had a 'Disappointing' Reaction to Her Disability | Lorraine
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Currently, in her fourth year of medical school, Dr Alexandra Adams will be the first Deafblind NHS doctor in the country and says that she has less eyesight, but more insight. Having had complications with her stomach, Alexandra was in the hospital for over a year and has experienced many different types of doctors and a variety of bedside manners. She says this experience enables her to truly understand what her patients are going through and to give the kind of support that they need in what can be a scary time. Although she was most surprised by the reaction of her colleagues, one of which sent her home on her first day on the ward, stating that 'no patient would want a disabled doctor', Alexandra continues to soldier on and prove that there is space in the field for disabled doctors.
Broadcast on 20/11/2019
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I think we need more doctors like her
The advantage of being a deafblind person is that you're probably less prone to conditioning through media or spoken word. So while I believe it's great that there is access for deafblind people to have access other ways of communicating, I believe the 'disability' also gives you the opportunity to be more open to other aspects of life. Because there are so many nonverbal aspects of life that we learn to ignore by focusing a lot on the verbal.
why the quotations around the word disability?
@@Jt-oj8mk it's in line with what I'm saying. Disability is a word focussing on not being able. Which is true, they are not able to haar and see. But as I said, it takes the focus off of what they are able to do.
Less eyesight and more insight! Oh yes!
This is so cool!!!!
I wonder how she is doing now. This video is almost 5 years old
I appreciate what shes doing, and what she must have overcome to get here, i genuinely do. My grandad was deaf and he was the most incredible person in my entire world. I hve massive respect for anyone who faces disability on top of the every day challenges we all face.
I truly do respect her massively. But unfortunately i cant understand how it will work with her being a doctor. Id love to know more to help me understand, but for example a patient needs bloods taken or medication given or requests something they csnt get themselves and she can see where it is, or they need to be moved a specific way and she cant see how shes doing it, or they need to be changed, or they've thrown up, wet or soiled themselves, they have test results that need reading or they need their monitoring, or she needs to observe incase someone could be silently seizing or silently fitting or theyre bleeding or theyre choking on their own vomit etc.
I genuinely dont mean to be nasty, but i dont understand what she can do as a doctor besides being present and obviously talking aswell, but she cant see the stuff she would need to talk about, such as monitors, results, medicine, canula, changing, injuries etc. She cant see any of the stuff you would normally talk to a patient about, so besides being there to comfort them, i dont get what doctor duties she is able to do and note and discuss and refer back to and check etc.
I know she mentioned palliative care, but especially in palliative care over many over fields, you get a large proportion of patients who cant verbally express their needs or wants or wishes and use gestures especially pointing or looking at stuff, making body gestures and movements or facial expressions etc. How can she make sure she provides what they need?
So much more of what we express is not done through talking, especially when severely ill and at end of life, so how will she manage that? And the workload she CAN do, i dont mean to be nasty but is she going to be paid a full wage when she cant do everything thats needed for her patients and another nurse would have to take on alot of the work for patients she is assigned to? Without seeing, she cant do everything herself that a sighted person would do, so would she still be paid the same even though a sighted person would have to compensate for what shes unable to do, ontop of their own workload and would she then get paid thr same as them if shes doing less?
Where I live, doctors don’t do as much hands on stuff…nurses and assistants do most of it even for abled doctors. I think she would be okay because she can hear with her hearing aids. I almost went to medical school and I’m visually and mobility impaired. I would have gone into either rheumatology or genetics.
Jodia2125 - Ableist Post
From your long message, I think you've not done the number 1 thing which any fully able-bodied/majority-group person should do: Google and self-educate to your fullest extent. It just so happens I have a random interest in minority people's lives and there is a plethora of technology available e.g. her hearing aids which allow for full discussion with a patient, and all smartphones have built-in assistive technology e.g. Reading test results, communications aloud, etc. You did also see her stethoscope, right? Maybe you're choosing to ignore the modern world and list a plethora of ways from your own uninformed POV that she can't succeed - suffice to say I doubt your good faith in making this post. But I thought I'd reply as disabled people face doubters/ableist posts such as these all the time, and the least that any supporter or non-ableist able-bodied/non-disabled person can do is counteract posts such as yours.
First off, your entire first main paragraph is work taken care of by a nurse - although junior doctors are trained to do these things and may do complicated tests/procedures, nurses do the absolute vast majority of these. The key role of a doctor is obviously diagnosis and doctor-only judgements/procedures. You need to learn to respect nurses and the sheer amount of work they do, and their invaluable yet undervalued expertise.
All patient records and histories are digitized now (you have been to a doctor's office or hospital in recent times, right?) - anything on a computer can be read aloud. She can either dictate or touch-type (undoubtedly she knows how given that all [deaf]blind people nowadays have technology which requires it for manual input) notes. No, she can't easily run to a patient coding in A&E or a ward, but she can still do physical compressions and has all the KNOWLEDGE, CLINICAL TRAINING and UNDERSTANDING a doctor would. Again, this is the most essential part about being a doctor. That's why you can still have videocalls with doctors without them being there. Also, why isn't she allowed to refer a patient or ask for help from another doctor? Because she's disabled she has to do everything herself or get pay docked/fired - if the case requires pure sight e.g. a wound, the patient could just get triaged to another. They do that in hospitals...refer patients onto the specialist or person who can help most.
Unless a patient is unconscious or unable to articulate their symptoms, the main job of a doctor is to listen and carry out tests - which she can physically do. Her modern stethoscope is one such thing to do that. There are so many ways that deaf and/or blind people can access information with technology...you just look them up on CZcams if they need to access any textual information e.g. blood tests. It ISN'T a barrier. It is also required by law for all employers and educational institutions to provide accessible information as well as make reasonable adjustments for their employees. So it is not optional whether the NHS try or not to accommodate her - this is not up for discussion.
If the patient can't talk, then it's the same for any doctor or nurse handling them, no?! They'd have to read the patient's body language and physical symptoms - she'd read their patient history (you do realise, again, that a nurse takes care of the vast majority of patient observations as doctors see an inordinate number of patients during a single shift). She'd talk to the nurse observing the patient, and she can also do physical examinations using her hands. She could specialise in treating deaf and/or blind patients - you forget the very thing that she can offer that others don't, her unique understanding of their well-being. If she's the first, then deaf/blind patients are stuck with ignorant and uninformed doctors all of the time (her senior doctor for an example) who don't understand a thing about what they go through or what their needs are, she could change all that.
She is extremely apparent to the deaf and/or blind community - everyone NEEDS to help her find the best place in the NHS where she can contribute, and be an effective doctor. We are SHORT of doctors, and especially disabled doctors who have invaluable insight into a particular patient base e.g. deaf/blind. Imagine if that community listened to you?! How demoralised, hurt and disgusted would they be. I don't believe for a second that in the 21st century 2023 if a deafblind doctor can already graduate from medical school (meaning her perseverance, dedication AND academic ability are amongst the HIGHEST in the UK), the NHS can't do anything to accommodate her. Not. One. Second.
Of course, you don't think of that and you think she should suffer pay discrimination for her disability. ALL employers must make reasonable adjustments for their employees by law, yet those employees' pay is not in question. They need to take sick leave, work partial shifts, etc. If her disabilities can be accommodated for, why can't she do a full shift? She has no difficulties with energy levels or mobility. She seems to have a medical condition given her number of hospital treatments, but her pay shouldn't be docked for that - an able-bodied/non-disabled person wouldn't. She HASN'T given up despite people like you popping up all over her life. You should watch her other interview for The Times - she said exactly that, not her disability which gets in her way.
Your questions, doubts and ignorant/uninformed perspective ARE nasty - you could've Googled or done your own research. You fully chose to write what you wrote in the way you did it - you don't deserve any benefit of the doubt. I don't care that you've used your grandfather as a disabled inspirational person for you (an ableist trope where that's all able-bodied people can think of disabled people). Your post was nasty, but at least you had the gumption to say it out loud - I hope you don't take it as 'nasty' that I didn't take kindly at all to it, and responded JUST AS FULLY as you, except I actually thought before writing anything down. You did not, and I'm sorry for all the disabled, including especially the deaf/blind people, who have to read your post. I just hope you know I'm able-bodied and do not align at all with that person's views - at all.
Nurses do, like, the bulk of that stuff you’re talking about. At least in the USA, they do. Doctors basically just examine you, make referrals, make treatment recommendations, and fill out prescriptions.
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