 |
Professionals as patients
|
 |
Issues for a doctor as a patient
- A knowledge of medical knowledge but awareness of lack of knowledge
- Who to see
- ?Too forward
- Aware of the doctor’s fears
- “Casual” consultation > chat > connecting > rapport
- Respect as patient in own right
- Want some credibility for your own medical knowledge
- Worry of “looking stupid” as a professional
- Difficulty in allowing someone to take control
- “Physician heal thyself” – awareness to seek help
- Fear of over-investigation
|
Issues for a doctor as a patient
- A knowledge of medical knowledge but awareness of lack of knowledge
- Who to see
- ?Too forward
- Aware of the doctor’s fears
- “Casual” consultation > chat > connecting > rapport
- Respect as patient in own right
- Want some credibility for your own medical knowledge
- Worry of “looking stupid” as a professional
- Difficulty in allowing someone to take control
- “Physician heal thyself” – awareness to seek help
- Fear of over-investigation
- Doctor seeing a professional patient
- Rewarding
- Heartsink
- Clinical knowledge – not OK to say, don’t know, asking hard
questions
- Finding out what they know
- “Trainee” hierarchy
- Close relatives giving advice/conflicting information before the
consultation
- People you know, colleagues
- Making assumptions
- Preferential treatment
- IRRELEVANT – good consultation skills always
|
The discussion led to 3 main issues for both the doctor and the doctor-patient
- Acknowledging knowledge/distorted knowledge/lack of knowledge
- Treat as a patient
- Control issues
So how is this different form ordinary patients – it isn’t except for some extra
baggage which could be dealt with early on in the consultation:
- Sharing that we are not perfect
- Sharing that it is OK not to know
- Discussing the potential dysfunction and not making assumptions
gp-training.net home page