Exploring communication, prompt 3.

By Laura Villarreal

    

This week I got to interview Dr. Rawn Bosley. He is a dermatologist in Okemos for Doctor’s Approach Dermatology. I got the pleasure of hearing him talk about his career and how he got to where he is now. I learned about his journey from college to his medical school to his residency and now to practicing medicine. He was very nice and was more than willing to answer the questions had for him both throughout his lecture and afterwards.

I first asked him about how he writes about his field. He told me he has written articles about health issues in different magazines. This impressed me because one of my own misconceptions of doctors was that  they did not do too much writing after schooling. I then asked him if there was any misconceptions he has noticed that people have about his field or medicine in general. His response was very interesting to me. He told me that he comes across many people who believe that after people become doctors they are the ones who call all of the shots. That the doctors have the absolute final say in all things medicine. In reality, there is a medical hierarchy of authority. The person who is at top is the one who makes all of the final decisions for what the people in his or her practice or hospital do. My final question asked him how he dispels these misconceptions. His response was that he just talks to them. Much like he talked to me and the other students that came to hear him speak. He talks to them on a person-to-person level to really make them understand why he has to do the things he does.

It was really a pleasure to meet Dr. Bosley. I wish i would have had more time to ask him more in depth questions. I learned many new things from him about my chosen field. I also learned that the most efficient way to communicate in this field is to talk to just someone. Not on a doctor to patient level, because that’s intimidating, but on a person-to-person level, because it is easier to get your point across.  I look forward to going to one of his talks again sometime in the future.