Seven behaviors should be implemented to improve the art of medicine, which can help improve relationships with patients, according to an article published in Family Practice Management.
Thomas R. Egnew, Ed.D., from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, reviewed the literature and delineated seven behaviors that promote more consistent practice of the interpersonal aspects of medicine.
Egnew describes seven behaviors that include focusing on the patient, ideally taking a moment to prepare before entering the office, and establishing a connection with the patient, preferably before opening the electronic medical record in the first few minutes of the consultation. Other tips include assessing the patient's response to illness and suffering, use of communication to foster healing, use of the power of touch, use of humor and laughter, and showing empathy.
"The behaviors recommended are based on empirical data," Egnew writes. "They incorporate a patient-centered approach to communicating with patients, which has been shown to improve health outcomes, increase patient satisfaction, and decrease malpractice liability."
Dr Abraham Verghese, an American physician of Kerala Christian ancestry, has been in the forefront of putting emphasis on the person, the patient rather than the computer when it comes to educating the future doctors.
Dr. Verghese: “When you examine a patient after listening to them, you’re inevitably participating in a very important ritual. First, it’s a very unequal relationship. You’re a physician with your diplomas on the wall, and a stranger is coming to you.”
“Even though we might have the illusion that this is a simple business transaction—an exchange in fact (I think that many of the hospital administrators tend to view it as that)—it’s actually much more loaded and complex. You’re wearing a white, shamanistic outfit with special tools in your pocket. The patient is in a paper gown. They’re expecting something to happen.”
“In society we’re conditioned for rituals all the time. There’s a ritual when you go to church or the synagogue or mosque. A ritual when you graduate, when you marry, when you baptize. [The physical exam] has all the trappings of ritual, and I think to that degree that we shortchange it. We shortchange the product of a ritual. Rituals are about transformation. The result of the ritual of the exam, I think, is the sealing of the patient-physician bond.”
I highly recommend The Covenant of Water by Dr Abraham Verghese
