In article <[log in to unmask]>,
Julian Bradley <[log in to unmask]> writes
>Perhaps as KT might say it's just that it's late and Monday morning draws
>near.
Indeed, Monday has arrived, but your thoughts, censored or otherwise,
remain interesting.
>Reading the NHS IM&T strategy reminded me of some sci-fi I read a long time
>ago. The basic point was that if we were bombarded with other peoples
>uncensored thoughts life would be unbearably awful.
(was that the series which had the space hospital and empaths in?)
>
>Part of a doctor's job has always been to give patients information in a
>way appropriate to that patient.
Yes.
Perhaps a bigger element than making a diagnosis - after all that often
can be made in the first 30 seconds.
Don't know who said it (maybe my trainer?), but I recall being taught
that a patient/client/person will only remember 3 things from any one
consultation.
I think part of our role is to decide which are the 3 most important
facts for the patient to know and reiterate them.
>Now, open access information is going to bombard patients with data in an
>increasingly uncontrolled way.
And our role becomes that of interpreter.
>I could say I regret this but I guess that's irrelevant.
Regrets ok if they mean *accept, feel sad and move on*
> It's been
>happening more and more for some time and already been making life more
>challenging.
Isn't life supposed to be a series of challenges?
>What I cannot imagine is how to doctor as this comes about.
We shall have to change, that much is certain.
But the uncertainty therein is difficult to handle, despite the fact
that we daily face and deal with uncertainty - easier when the
uncertainty belongs to a patient or someone else, less so when it has
direct effects on our being.
> Am I alone in thinking that many
>(but not all) of our patients need to be able to turn to someone who knows
>what they do not know, perhaps even what they cannot imagine themselves
>knowing?
You are not alone.
Maybe part of our doctoring skills lies in identifying which these
patients are?
There will be some patients who look down on doctors, see us as a way of
acquiring what they have decided they *need*, rather like a barrier they
wish would just go away. They will always exist. We cannot provide
them with anything they will want to understand or be open to. Dare I
say, we should give them what they want and not waste time arguing.
Then there are patients who are in genuine need of what we do well,
whatever our particular interest in medicine may be. They are a
pleasure to look after.
Oh, well, as you said, it's monday, off to see what the future holds...
--
Katie
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