Sunday, September 14, 2008 @ 5:27 PM
in time, we forget..
i think the longer we spend in this line of taking care of people who don't know medicine, ironically, the more we forget what it is to be a non medical person.
i was talking to my friend today. and she didn't tell her doctor everything. eventually she said something along the lines of "i always thought they would have just said that it's normal and to not think too much about it. and that would be the end of the conversation." and instantly i could see it in my head... a doctor in one of the MO clinics, furiously scribbling away at his or her notes, not even looking up and saying "don't worry, it's normal. just don't think too much about it."
it may be normal, or even a figment of an overactive and overanxious imagination, but i think this comes down to treating the patient and not the disease. as long as it bothers the patient that he or she feels compelled enough to confide in you, i feel necessitates a greater reaction than to tell him or her not to worry. of course in some cases, there are people who nitpick and it's truly nothing to worry about, but the more we respond nonchalantly to patients, the more we will tend to lose those who actually have a problem.
first case scenario is that they actually come up to us and tell us what is bothering them. and in the rush of everything, we give a very diplomatic answer, telling them everything's okay, don't worry, nothing's wrong. just imagine, if you hear a creaky sound in the pipes hanging above your bed and you tell your plumber, and just glancing at the pipes he says "ahh don't worry, everything's okay. there's nothing wrong."
second case scenario is that we get so used to seperating the pathological from the not, that patients become wary of telling us or they just don't bother cause they think they'll know the answer they will receive.
i'm not saying to spend half an hour on every single person, going thru every single problem. but i think some weight should be given to these little things that often get cast aside in the face of a bigger problem. even if it is not pathological, even if you know it'll go away after a while, i think we should just spend that extra couple of minutes.
our duty, after all, is to the patient and not the disease.
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