Doctor on Instagram: «I write about things that irritate and hurt me»

– I will say boldly: fake news is our fault! Mine too. I should have created an account on Facebook in 2004, and not wonder if it is worth it for the next decade. Or, like most colleagues, anticipate the end of social media. If you are a novice instamedic in 2020, I have bad news: patients are not waiting for you. We talk with Maja, Janek and Róża about instamedicin.

1. Maja Herman, Janek Świtała and Róża Hajkuś – these are the so-called installers, i.e. representatives of medical professions who, apart from working with people, are also very active on social networks and share their knowledge and experience there
2. On the Internet, they educate, debunk medical myths, encourage prophylaxis and health care, and engage in aid campaigns
3. – For me, the leitmotif is reality, i.e. the systemic compulsion to be an insolent boor. There is no time for explanations at work, I have Instagram on Instagram – explains Janek Świtała, paramedic. – I can write what segregation is and why green waits longer than yellow for a medical examination. You must know that health care in Poland is a pathological creation – he adds
4. A year ago, I was worried about the “hate entry” for two or three weeks, now it’s a matter of one day. When does it hurt the most? When the pins are put by people from your community, colleagues from the industry – adds a psychiatrist, Maja Herman

Maja Herman, psychiatrist and psychotherapist, 11 thousand followers

I will not stop you

She likes fuchsia, high heels and open minds. He has one foot in the new media and the other in the old media. Its mission is to transform “elderly gentlemen’s psychiatry” into “useful psychiatry.” – Every time I attended the congress, I had a deja vu. Lots of gentlemen, few ladies. Lectures on the need for changes, which were not followed by any action, and there are an awful lot of problems in medicine. “Number One” is a wall that has been built over the years. We dug in in front of the patient – we learned to distinguish between being a doctor and being a human. And yet I can be both human and feminine and competent. Instagram became a space where I could show it.

I didn’t have any strategy, I just wanted to educate myself – my own experiences, thoughts and even my looks by posting pictures of fighting body shaming.

On my Instagram you will see me in a low-cut dress and tracksuit. In full make-up after her performance in breakfast room and with hair that has not been washed for a week. At the beginning, there were a lot of no votes. I was accused of exhibitionism and sexualization.

It was written that medicine is medicine, and my femininity disturbs the reception. And … I posted a picture in a furious pink tank top with the description: OMG! But it has a cleavage. I have it and now it is. It’s my business. I treat Instagram as my own home, if you don’t like it, I won’t stop you …

Patients are not waiting for us

Dr. Herman’s Instagram is proof that followers don’t fall from the sky. Despite frequent appearances in breakfasts, “magic 10 thousand”. she won in four years. – I think it’s harder for us medics. For a simple reason, people learned that we are gone and the human brain hates a vacuum and found a doctor available 24 hours a day – Uncle Google.

I will say boldly: fake news is our fault! Mine too. I should have set up an account on FB in 2004, and not wonder if it is worth it for the next decade. Or, as most colleagues predict: the end of social media. If you are a novice instamedic in 2020, I have bad news: patients do not wait with open arms. You have to convince them, and this is hard work.

It happened that I worked on one post for several days. I put my whole heart into it, browsed x-books, read x-articles, and my breakthrough post was liked only by … 30 people. This is the moment when everything collapses. There are many such moments, especially if you are a psychiatrist. At the beginning, I heard from patients: Doctor, please do not be offended, I am watching you, but I do not mark you. Today, I get a message more and more often: thanks to you, I confessed to depression, anxiety, BPD to my friends. This is a 180-degree coup and it is a fatal mistake to pretend that instamedicin doesn’t exist. Let me quote my favorite quote from Antoine de Rivarol: Who is right the day before than others, is considered an idiot XNUMX hours a day. This was the case with instamedics.

I was fucking sorry

She has been fighting hate for a long time – two years ago she was an expert in the “Love over Hate” campaign. He openly says that Professor Philip Zimbardo’s “Stanford prison experiment” has gone online.

– You cannot immunize against hate, but we can minimize the length of our response. A year ago, I was worried about the “hate entry” for two or three weeks, now it’s a matter of one day. When does it hurt the most? When the pins are put by people from your environment. At the end of May, together with Monika Staruch, a sexologist, we announced a joint live: how to talk to a child about pedophilia? Under the announcement post, among the comments, there was an entry by my colleague, who had previously harassed me in a passive-aggressive manner: About Maj, I did not know that you were a sexologist. It says on my website that I am a psychiatrist and psychotherapist. I have never signed up as a sexologist in my life. I wrote back that if he had a need to express himself, social media was open. I hid her subsequent comments so as not to hurt those who read. Honestly – I was so damn sorry that a colleague in my industry was undermining my authority. On the other hand, one hate entry does not exclude feedback from patients. What dimension is one to 11? You can see the perspective straight away.

1. «We relieve stress with cigarettes and talking about sex». This is what working in an ambulance looks like

You are the bottom for me

– There are many offers for cooperation, and even more private offers. Mostly fetishists who will pay for my dirty panties or stockings. I also regularly get blurry photos from men boasting about their penis. I even have my own saying: a day without a penis on Instagram is a day wasted. However, there are difficult situations. Usually it starts innocently: thank you for being here, it is important what you do, thanks to your posts I have learned a lot. To be continued: my uncle, my dad, my friend is sick … I answer that I keep my fingers crossed. A friendly conversation lasting several days ends with a “plot twist”. I get a video of a man masturbating screaming my name. It is something that cannot be “unseen”.

Another problem is medical advice, i.e. messages like: Doctor, I haven’t slept for months, Doctor, I’m not happy, Doctor, I’m afraid to leave the house. I write back that this is a serious problem and invite you to see a psychiatrist or psychiatrist. And this is where the attack begins: she learned a trade to only cut money, you can’t do anything for free, you are a bottom for me.

For us doctors who swear to “serve human health and life” are terribly difficult situations. I think many beginners give up because of it.

Self-promotion festival?

– If you do not have the so-called pushing on glass, you will not find yourself in the world of social media. But what exactly is pressure on glass? For me, it’s a way of reacting – every time I appear on TV, conduct a live, write a post, I blow my emotions out. It’s a kind of self-therapy. Last year I had a long time to post one post. On the one hand, I really wanted to share what happened with my community, on the other hand, I was just afraid. I wrote that this is one of those days when I don’t want advice. I just want someone to tell me: it will be okay. Do you know how many people wrote to me? This is the bright side of Instagram that is hard to miss. Besides, I found fantastic friends there (doctors, paramedics, nurses, physiotherapists, psychologists – the whole world of instamedics). We’ve never met in real life, but without blinking an eye, I would have put my family under their professional care. We have a common message – “no” to the stick in the ass. And I think “stick in the butt” is something that needs to be pulled out to the doctors. The first mission of instamedics is education, the second is to show colleagues that if you deflate yourself, they will not stop respecting you, on the contrary, they will respect you even more.

Janek Świtała, paramedic, 14 thousand followers

I don’t want to understand them

He has a reputation for being a brute. Example: – This is my locker in the hospital locker room. This is where I start and end my shift. It is in the cloakroom that I think the most about what awaits me today. Beach and peace? Fuck you beyond your strength? Two resuscitation and electrocution or a day full of pampers, bedsores and medication? At the end of the day it gets even worse: – Elo, it’s me, I’m here to give you a drip. I hope not a ******** drug, but all in all, controloc and betaloc sound similar. One is a proton pump inhibitor (reduces the secretion of hydrochloric acid in the stomach), the other slows down the heart rate. All in all, I hope I didn’t confuse you with another patient – you are the 47th I am dealing with today. The day after tomorrow I will not remember you, I will automatically banish your existence from my consciousness to make room for another. There are many more similar entries … – I’m just writing about my work. About what irritates and hurts me. Contrary to appearances, about things that are suitable for publication. Reactions vary. Sometimes I hear from my colleagues that if I want to shine I should sprinkle some glitter. Or: You are young, the longer you drive you will understand. But you know what? I don’t want to understand them.

I just got up

Janek is not only brutal, but also unavailable. After four days of hammering, we finally got a chance to talk.

– Why do I need Instagram? As for Maja and Róża, it is a springboard for me. We say what we think and try to open the eyes of others. For me, the leitmotif is the realities, i.e. the systemic compulsion to be an insolent boor. There is no time to explain at work, I do have Instagram. I can write what sorting is and why green waits longer than yellow for a medical examination. You must know that health care in Poland is a pathological entity – cancer, and as a medic you must submit to it. There is no other option.

If we started working in accordance with the principles of knowledge and medical art (including the number of hours worked per month), were nice, patient and smiling, we would have to work half as much, i.e. we would be half as productive. A SOR is like a small disaster every time – there are always too many patients, too little equipment, not enough staff and not enough vacancies. This month alone, I have 220 hours to do. I was about to stop taking my roster, I looked at my salary and I took … We talk at 17.00 pm. I am night after night, I just woke up and then I am leaving.

He has a name, surname, social security number and feelings

She is only 26 years old. He has been working in health care for four years, and has been a paramedic for a year.

He dreamed about “a job that nobody wants to come to” since he was a child – I have always been interested in it, but I have come up with a thousand reasons not to go. Everything changed after I hitchhiked to Tehran and got lost in the desert. I figured if I survive this, I will go to college. I survived, quit rockendrol and became a paramedic.

Recently, something has changed in our profession. We managed to show that medical rescue has a face. It is not an iStock photo, but a specific person with a name, surname, social security number and feelings. Together with Nursegram, a nurse working in one of the largest hospitals in Warsaw, we managed to ensure that paramedics and nurses were discussed in the media as often as about doctors. Until the pandemic, health care was mostly “THEY”, and this is not the case. I have five doctors and fifteen paramedics on duty, who is the punch line?

I reach young people

– It’s not like hate is coming over me. If on a given day I take a swab for the hundredth time and for the fiftieth time I hear: oh oh oh, a bandit hurts, then I come home a bit beheaded. It’s just not my fault that we use anal and vaginal swabs and not nasal swabs that are not on the market. And the size is the way it is. I say loudly all the time that patients are indirectly responsible for the existing medical care system in Poland. The right to health protection enshrined in art. 68 of the Constitution, it is also an obligation to care for health protection, i.e. to take responsibility for it.

Through Instagram, it is possible to reach young people who understand more and more. And personally, it even tickles me for ego, when I get the message: Hey Janek, I did not know that there is such a thing as Night and Christmas Healthcare (NAD). I went with diarrhea, after an hour it was over. Thank you very much. I write back: Here you go, little face. This is what you should learn in school, not the Way of the Cross.

Róża Hajkuś, a doctor for children, 26 thousand followers

I am just a Rose

She calls herself “the least needed man of the Internet” and she started out with a blog. – Already working in the clinic, I realized that there is not enough time. I wanted to give my parents more information, and the next patient was already entering. Anyway, being in their nerves, they didn’t always want to listen to me. So I started writing notes about various children’s diseases: chicken pox, streptococcal angina, mononucleosis, which I handed over to my caregivers at the end of the visit.

With time, I came to the conclusion that the prepared information could be used by more people and I put everything online. Especially that on the Internet, on many websites about medicine, non-medics comment. They are happy to give advice about sick children whom they have never seen before. It scares me how carelessly they make firm diagnoses based on a few words out of context. How often they present their own opinion as facts. I thought that a counterbalance of doctors, paramedics and nurses was needed.

With time, the blog was joined by social media, which gives the possibility of interaction and changes the nature of relationships. On Instagram, I’m not Mrs.

I build a community with authenticity

– I have never used shortcuts – I did not buy likes, I did not ask for recommendations. I built the community with my own authenticity. Anyway, for me there is no other way to be on social media than to be real. In my photos you can see the mess at home, “regular overwhelming”, bad days. Realizes that not everyone likes it. On the other hand, I know that those who stay are actually people who want to be with me and know me as I am. Besides, social media is a lot of fun for me, not an artificial creation that I have to uphold and stress about how consistent it is. It is so much easier for me that this is not my source of income – my job is to be a doctor, and social media is by the way. I educate patients and learn a lot by learning about their needs.

An informed patient makes everything easier

– I am most often criticized by doctors who do not know what I do. The allegations vary – some believe that we are breaking medical confidentiality by appearing on social media. Unfortunately, this sometimes happens, but for me this accusation is completely unfounded. Others assume that the doctor’s workplace is an office and the patient should not have medical knowledge. I believe that the opposite is true – an informed patient facilitates everything: diagnostics, treatment and, above all, mutual relationship. Especially since there are so many “anti-medical advisers” on the Internet.

For me, these are not only absurd and innocent statements – unlike those who do not take any responsibility for their words, I realistically deal with the effects of their “advice” at work. We are where the children of their parents come to believe that fever in a newborn is dealt with with onions, salt on the tongue will cure asthma exacerbation, bioresonance will eliminate allergies, wounds can be decontaminated with perfume, and eating seeds will cure cancer.

If we do not set our knowledge against these Internet “diagnoses” and “therapies”, we will lose. Besides, doctors who criticize us often complain about patients trained in medicine by Google. Thanks to us, medics operating in the network have a chance that the patient will come with more reliable information.

Celebrity, businessman, educator?

– Apart from the fact that we are connected by the profession and the media, we are very different people. Some are more profit oriented, which I respect, others want to educate. We stick together with medics who share my way of doing things on the Internet. I like that we have different jobs and we can learn a lot from each other. We share our posts, organize joint live broadcasts so that information consistent with medical knowledge can reach a larger audience. A few months ago, when Magda Jutrzenka raised money for Zolgensma gene therapy for her son Alex, many medics helped me organize charity educational live on specific topics, asking for donation to Alex’s Piggy Bank. They were, among others, doctors such as Maja Herman or Michał Bloch “Dr Hospice”, pharmacists: Anka Wyrwas “Young pharmacist”, Marcin Korczyk “Pan Tabletka”, paramedic Grzesiek Majsner, nurse Maciej Latos, psychologist Magda Komsta.

This shows that social media comes in handy in difficult situations when we can help each other. And it’s not just about the creators on the Internet – in times of need, I get a lot of support myself from my audience. I guess that’s why I haven’t had a moment yet to want to quit completely. Sometimes, after completing larger projects that cost me a lot of work or are mentally burdensome, I just disappear for a few days. On the other hand, these are so important matters that even the “least needed man on the Internet” cannot leave them behind.

1. “People lie because they don’t want rescuers dressed as aliens to come to them”

Instamedyk is the answer to everything?

– Medics who run social media are such superheroes and superheroes who fight on the front lines every day, not only in times of pandemics, threats, situations requiring a voice in the social debate, but above all every day. People read us every day, we entertain, educate and keep our spirits up. And besides being therapists for ourselves, we are therapists for others.

I learn medicine myself from my friends, but also entries by Janek, Róża, Kasia Woźniak, Juli Piątek (Emergency Queen), Ewa Bujacz (Lewogram – my Instagram guru), Dr. Anna Wasiewicz – they affect me therapeutically, laugh, force me to reflect . On the other hand, the way I talk about my mother’s medicine and the stethoscope have a soothing effect on me, and it always forces me to stop in this rush. The institutional world has one more undisputed advantage, we do a “click”, turn off the screen and that’s it. We don’t have to be there from 7 to 15.30 every day – if we want to take part in the action, we do. If not, then we don’t. It is a luxury that not everyone can afford these days – sums up Dr. Maja Herman.

Read also:

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2. How much do nurses and paramedics earn? There was a specific amount
3. The patient bit a bit of her neck. Nurses say that hospitals are daily bread