N is for non-adherence / non compliance.
Medicine is complex, and requires extensive knowledge of physiology to really understand. So it’s very interesting to see how patients understand their bodies and disease states, and difficult at times to describe them in a way that makes sense. A lot of times my patients turn to forums that are full of misinformation because those sources are much easier to understand and seem to make logical sense. It’s more reasonable than the hocus pocus mumbo jumbo of medical talk!
Patients have a lot of reasons to not take medications that are prescribed to them- undesirable side effects, scary stuff on the web, lack of financial resources or even time to pick up meds, lack of buy-in, etc. I try to be charitable and understand that a patient’s body is their own, and to do my best to emphasize why sticking to a treatment plan should be a priority. But dang there are times when that paternalism hits and I just want to be like “that symptom you have is because of your disease!! Not the thing we’re treating you with! You got to take it!” What’s your approach? #hospital #patient #procreate #illustration #webcomic #resident #intern #pgy1 #medicine #residency #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #im #residency #internyear #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudents