“A healthcare provider’s bedside manner encompasses their medical knowledge, personality, and ability to understand the patient and communicate their concern for them.” (Britt). Although some individuals don’t see the importance of communication and emotional connection with patients in the medical field, doctors who have problems properly interacting with their patients will have a lower chance of success in healing them. Doctors receive so much education but are never taught proper bedside manners, which is the way that physicians interact with patients. In order to ensure a patient’s comfort, psychological well-being, and physical health, a physician must truly understand their patient. When a physician has inadequate bedside manners, …show more content…
psychological harm may be inflicted on patients. Lauren Suval from Psych Central states that, “A poor bedside manner does affect a patient’s emotional disposition; it does heighten any anxiety, and it certainly ensures difficulty in forming a positive bond with a professional who’s in a field that’s supposed to alleviate illness.” Often doctors will get into a sort of “robot mode” and just try to get their job done. The big problem with this is that they are completely disregarding people’s feelings, treating them more like subjects of an experiment rather than patients with sensitive human emotions. This horrible occurrence is considered dehumanization. Doctors cannot completely help patients by only treating them with medicine; they need to connect with them on an emotional level as well. Unless physicians start seeing the importance that the lack of emotional connections can have on a person’s psychological health, healthcare will never be able to improve. (Suval) A physician’s poor bedside manner not only affects a patient’s psychological health, but their physical health can be harmed as well.
The Advisory Board Company claims, “A recent review of clinical trials reveals that a doctor's bedside manner can greatly impact patients' health, aiding their efforts to lose weight, lower their blood pressure, or manage painful symptoms.” When doctors are treating patients poorly, it will cause anxiety and stress, which in turn causes physical health problems. Harm is not only caused by the manner in which a doctor treats their patient, but also by the way a doctor is treating other medical professional. Arrogant doctors can get so caught up with pride that they completely disregard the advice of other people in the medical field. That pride causes mistakes, which can severely harm patients. To put it simply, better bedside manner equals better patient health. In fact, “Some communication techniques have proven to make people feel better and help them heal faster.” ("Study: Physicians' Bedside Manner Affects Patients' …show more content…
Health") According to Emma Wilkinson there are a variety of ways for physicians to improve bedside manner.
Patients deserve the full attention of their doctor. (Wilkinson) One of the things that is distracting health care professionals from paying attention to their patients is technology. Physicians can get so caught up with filling out forms and answering calls that they aren’t giving enough time to their patient. (Britt) A harmless solution to this problem is just asking the person to wait a few minutes, so the doctor can finish up what they’re doing and then be able to devote their full attention to the patient. There needs to be a balance between giving someone very little time and wasting too much time on one person. That’s why doctors not only need to focus but also remain in control. Often patients will ramble on about their problem even after the doctor has figured out what’s wrong. For a case like that, every doctor should have something prepared to say in order to go treat other patients.
(Wilkinson) It also seems important that doctors need to have good listening skills. “Every patient wants to find a doctor who listens.” (Blue 1) What is the patient really saying or wanting to know? Maybe one of the most annoying things is when a physician spits off a bunch of random medical information that you didn’t even want to hear. If a doctor is truly listening, the patient’s experience with them will be much better because they will feel like their doctor actually cares and wants to help them. Offering a patient reassurance and comforting them can be very beneficial too. Empathy is key! Although having sympathy for someone is great, managing to feel a sense of empathy for him or her is so much better. Patients need to be ensured that their doctor knows what they are going through and actually wants to heal them. Similarly, they also need reassurance that their doctor is always there to help and answer questions whenever needed. Patients who have doctors that really know and understand them will have a much better experience. (Wilkinson) People often forget how powerful words can be. When speaking with a patient, physicians need to use positive words. A substantial use of negative words can concern a patient and make them overly worried, even if they were being told good news about their health. Using a lot of medical jargon is another bad choice of words because it will frustrate the people who have no idea what is being said. The best way to talk to a patient about something is to start out with basic, easily understandable words and then gradually build them up in complexity if the patient still fully understands everything. The way physicians communicate with patients is just so important. (Wilkinson) Not only properly communicating but also observing a person’s body language is very important. Although it may seem strange, physicians are advised to match their patient’s body language. If someone is lowering their head and talking quietly, their doctor should sit down and speak softly. This technique will give their patient more confidence rather than scaring them. The last thing somebody wants is to feel very uncomfortable with the doctor that knows everything about him or her. When doctors cross their arms, avoid eye contact, or fiddle with something, the patient sitting across from them may feel quite awkward. For a doctor to make someone feel at ease, they need to be relaxed and confident. Another good tactic to get people to open up and explain their problem is by using open-ended questions. If someone is asked a yes or no question like “Does your throat hurt?” not much useful information is going to come out of his or her response. In contrast, asking them “How does your throat feel?” will provoke a much more elaborate response. By asking open-ended questions, patients get to give a more detailed and personal explanation, which in turn makes the doctor seem interested in their problem and also allows them to assess the problem much better. (Wilkinson) Giving a patient the privacy that they deserve is essential as well. Although physicians don’t see many medical topics as embarrassing, the patients do, and they will want a private room to talk about it. For example, somebody coming in to ask questions about bowel issues will be very uncomfortable talking about their problem if they are not offered a private speaking area. On the other hand, doctors hear questions like this every day and may not give a thought to it being an embarrassing topic. Even if a patient is not embarrassed about their problem, they still deserve a private room to discuss the issue. (Wilkinson) Whether a patient can sense it or not, healthcare professionals should not judge the people that they are caring after. Judging someone may not seem like it would affect anything in a medical sense. However, an irrational judgment of a patient can affect the advice given to them. Yes, doctors know a lot about the patients they have treated before, yet they don’t know everything! A patient may ask a question that sounds dumb, but their doctor does not know everything going on in that person’s life or why they are asking questions. All physicians need to be professional by not making assumptions about people. (Wilkinson)
When we see patients, we must remember that we are not simply treating a disease. We are caring for people with lives, hobbies, jobs, families, and friends, who are likely in a very vulnerable position. We must ensure that we use the status of physicians to benefit patients first and foremost, and do what we promised to when we entered the profession: provide care and improve quality of life, and hopefully leave the world a little better than it was
“The Doctor” presented interesting and emotional concepts accurately representing the philosophies and behaviors of many medical professionals. Perhaps its viewing would be beneficial by members of our medical community, and provide a framework to the personalization of patient care.
The implementation of bedside shift reporting is crucial for quality of patient care and patient safety. According to an article found in the American Nurse, 2009 by Trossman, “Shift-change reports are as routine and as important to staff nurses as breathing”. Nurses have identified and averted a number of errors – including delivering wrong medications and continuing orders that were stopped – since the bedside report has been implemented” (p. 7). Lag time from when on coming nurses received report and actually saw their patient was reported to decrease with bedside shift reporting. Julie Truran, RN who is a charge and staff nurse on a pulmonary and infectious disease unit states “It’s improved patient safety
They play a major role in health care field. Their goal is to make all patients feel a friendly and welcome environment therefore, they greet and welcome patients so that the facility builds a good reputation in patients. Medical receptionists perform professional duties from the front desk that way they can interact with several patients, make several phone calls, answer patient questions within the scope of their practice, schedule new and follow-up appointments, register all new incoming patients and update records if necessary (Lisa Davila, 2010). The receptionist should know how to interact and treat people with different personalities and in different circumstances (Lisa Davila, 2010). Medical receptionists work
Upon the first point of contact between a nurse and patient, the way a nurse communicates through words, gestures or facial expressions can affect the patient's perception of the nurse. Communicating professionally helps to portray the nurse in a good light. This is important as having a positive perception of the nurse's image and behaviour is crucial to building patient trust — one of the key elements of a therapeutic nurse-patient relationship (Bell & Duffy, 2009; Wadell & Skarsater, 2007). The need for the establishment of therapeutic relationship is supported by th...
Understanding that all patients needed to be treated justly and given the opportunity to make decisions in their care is important. Not causing harm and preventing them from harm is also the duty of health care workers. These ethical principles are essential to keep in mind with interdisciplinary communication. Ineffective communication has been associated with medical errors, patient harm, and increase length of stay. Failure to communicate properly has been associated with 79% of sentinel events (Dingley, Daugherty, Derieg & Persing, 2008). Good communication has been shown to improve patient satisfaction, increase in patient safety, as well as a decrease in health care costs (Paget et al.,
It is quite obvious that morals, ethics and common courtesy are not enough to encourage the respect of patients in the educational atmosphere, as is seen in the story. I believe it is the responsibility of the medical school to encourage their teachers to demonstrate ways to connect with patients rather than just teaching the anatomy of health care. Teachers are supposed to be role models for students and if they are not taught to treat patients with respect, the only way they can learn that kind of skill is the hard way; through the loss of patients because of their feelings of irrelevancy at the doctor’s office, or through the complaints of people who are unsatisfied with their quality of health care.
In the medical community there appears to be a divide between disease-centered care and patient-centered care. Both Charon and Garden, readily acknowledge this. Charon explains how although doctors can boast in their “impressive technical progress,” and “their ability to eradicate once fatal infections,” doctors often lack the abilities to recognize the pain of their patients and to extend empathy (3). Charon further adds that “medicine practiced without a genuine and obligating awareness of what patients go through [empathy] may fulfill its technical goals, but it is an empty medicine, or, at best, half a medicine” (5). Often, doctors fail to remember that their patients are more than just a person with cancer or a congenital heart defect — they are human, a whole person with dreams, aspirations, and fears. According to Charon, “scientifically competent medicine alone cannot help a patient grapple w...
Healthcare professionals in the medical office should be friendly and open. Patients entering the medical office should be greeted immediately with a smile and having a gentle touch also let the patient know you care. “Healthcare professionals in a medical office are held to a higher standard than most professions because they are dealing with the dignity of patients and the ability to be healed” (Wolff). Educating the staff to be professional in the medical office represents the office as being excellent in patient care. Patient-centered care success is required by the whole office which is treatment and patient experience, from the time they enter the office until they leave.
Does your head hurt, does your body ache, and how are your bowl movements? After a head to toe assessments, touching and prodding, the physician writes up a prescription and explains in a medical jargon the treatment plan. As the short consultation comes to a close, it’s wrapped up with the routine “Please schedule an appointment if there are no signs of improvement”. This specific experience often leaves the patient feeling the “medical gaze” of the physicians. Defined by good and good, the medical gaze is the physicians mentality of objectifying their patient to nothing more than a biological entity. Therefore it is believed that the medical gaze moves away from compassionate and empathetic care, thus leaving patients feeling disconnected from their physicians. In order to understand how the medical gaze has stemmed into patient care, I begin with observations of a Grand Round, lectures for the progress of continuing medical education of physicians. There are expectations of physicians to be informed of cutting edge medical procedures and biotechnology since it can result in a less aggressive and more efficient treatment plan of patients. As I witness the resident physician’s maturation of medical competence in during a Surgical Grand Round at UC Irvine Medical Center, it has shifted the paradigm of the medical gaze and explains how competence is a form of compassion and empathy in patient care.
In the provision of a high quality care, many factors influence the way it is provided; however, IC is crucial. A healthy work environment would result from open communication among the staff, it would increase the employees and patients’ level of satisfaction and sense of well-being. Good communication is the cornerstone for the IC, it is a complex process which requires to develop some skills to learn how to transmit some information. One of the most common factors leading to medical errors, are due to miscommunication, sometimes because the message is not clearly sent, and others because it is not clearly received or it is misunderstood (Danna, 2015). In terms of communication non-verbal communication must be taken into consideration as well; body language, facial expressions, use of space, and touch, entail conscious or unconscious movements and gestures, also impacts the communication among the staff and
Introduction: In March 2016, I have undertaken a quality improvement project (QIP) in my seven weeks of placements working in the surgical short stay unit (SSU) under SJOGMPH. The project aim is to improve the quality and safety of patients’ care by changing the existing handover practice to a structural bedside handover system. This report will firstly describe the QIP and analytically reflect the experiences of developing the QIP using the Levett-Jones clinical reasoning Model (Levett-Jones et al., 2010). Then it will focus on reflection of delivering the QIP presentation and viewing other student’s QIP presentation.
Despite the frequency of verbal interactions, miscommunication of patient information occurs that can lead to patient safety issues. . . . ‘Effective communication occurs when the expertise, skills, and unique perspectives of both nurses and physicians are integrated, resulting in an improvement in the quality of patient care’ (Lindeke & Sieckert, 200...
A therapeutic nurse-patient relationship is outlined as a helping relationship grounded on shared respect, trust, the encouragement of having faith and hope in oneself and others, and emotional support (Pullen et al., 2010). In doing so, the nurse can establish complete satisfaction of the patients needs, whether it be physical, emotional or spiritual. This relationship produces when the patient and the nurse come together in harmony and peace (Pullen et al., 2010). Efficient verbal and nonverbal communication is an essential aspect of interaction between nurse and patient – in doing this, the patient feels on par with the nurse, as an equal, rather than having no indication of what procedures are taking place (Pullen et al., 2010).
If a mutual relationship is reached, not only would the patient be more comfortable in the presence of the doctor, but also more likely to be more thoroughly while explaining his or her symptoms. By helping patients be more at ease, not only would they be less anxious