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Bedside Manner Blog

(2017/03/31)
 
An ICU nurse says that when there is bad news to deliver, doctors often lack the bedside manner to deliver it well. “Doctors are sometimes not so great at it and they leave us standing there to deal with the family. I give them a hug because I’m that type of person. We don’t have any formal program to tell the family. Of course, after the fact, they can see grief counselors. There was this one guy who didn’t make it after open-heart surgery. We were just waiting for him to die and even after we unplugged everything he still held on. We couldn’t figure out what ...
 
 
(2017/02/23)
 
Most people want health-care providers who communicate well and offer some level of conversation. Despite this obvious fact, some doctors don’t converse with their patients, and more importantly they don’t communicate at a most critical moment: when the patient is in distress or in pain. While every doctor responds to the screaming patient, only the perceptive observer reads body language to help him or her respond to less clearly expressed patients’ needs. Body language is a form of nonverbal communication ranging from the easy-to-read (laughing and crying: both of wh ...
 
 
(2016/11/24)
 
Each professional must decide how to address patients and how they would prefer to be titled. Some doctors strive for a casual office while others prefer formality. There is a way to have both and to please most everyone. The way to greet patients varies from one geographic or socioeconomic setting to another. As a rule of thumb, staff should address young patients (under thirty years of age) by first name and older patients (over thirty years of age) by surnames. Doctors may use first names for most patients under sixty years of age. A twenty-year-old calling an eighty-year-old wom ...
 
 
(2016/10/30)
 
There are countless ways you can make the patient experience better by using language that neither scares nor confuses. Many words should be stricken from office jargon or substituted with euphemisms. The more innocuous the terms used, the better the patient will feel about the procedure. Each practitioner needs a personal list of taboo words and field-specific terminology. There are good and bad ways to give patients information. In general, avoid technical terms. While these terms make the doctor appear learned, they are often confusing to the patient suddenly required to learn a new ...
 
 
(2016/09/26)
 
Saint Peter had a terrible cold, so he asked Jesus if he could have the day off to go to the doctor. Jesus said, “Sure, I’ll watch the Pearly Gates for you.” It was a slow day and at the end of the day an old man with white hair approached the gates. “May I enter the Kingdom of Heaven?” Jesus replied, “We’d love to have you, but tell me what you’ve done to earn your space here among the good?” “I am but a simple carpenter, however my son was very special. I raised him to be a carpenter too, but a miraculous tran ...
 
 
(2016/05/27)
 
A seven-year-old girl comes home from school and tells her mother, “A boy in my class asked me to play doctor.” “Oh, dear,” the mother nervously sighed. “What happened, honey?” “Nothing. He made we wait forty-five minutes and then double-billed my insurance company.” ____ Patients deplore waiting. The more apprehensive, aggravated, or inconvenienced they feel about seeing the doctor, the more volatile they become. While doctors with great bedside manner can often melt away patient hostility by entering the room with a resounding gracio ...
 
 
(2016/05/01)
 
Dentist: “Bob, could you let out a blood curdling scream when I start drilling?” Patient: “But why? It never hurts that much.” Dentist: “The waiting room is so full that I’m afraid I’m going to miss the championship game this afternoon.” ____ The office environment is a reflection of the health-care provider much in the same manner as is dress and personal grooming. Since bedside manner is the perception patients have regarding your expertise, personality and very being, you can’t ignore your environment. Office design is ...
 
 
(2016/04/24)
 
  The elderly couple consulted with the young doctor and told him they would like to engage in sex and wanted to make sure they were doing it properly for their age. While it seemed like an odd request, he took them into the examination room and let them go to town. At the completion, he told them they were doing just fine and all should be well. He even congratulated them on such an exceptional performance. The next week, and the week after that they were back in his office making the same request and he let them engage again. Becoming suspicious by the forth week, he asked, ...
 
 
(2016/01/25)
 
    When asked how he deals with the ornery, miserable, nasty patient, a busy urologist relates that he tells them that their case is more involved than what he treats, and that he would like them to see another specialist in town who might be able to better deal with their problem. This way he avoids dealing with a patient who would make his life miserable. Directing the misanthropic patient to a teaching hospital or a boutique practice, where they have time to placate the difficult patient, relieves stress and burnout. ____ It is extremely difficult to go th ...
 
 
(2016/01/25)
 
The elderly gentleman is about to leave the urologist’s office after getting his treatment for impotence. He goes to the secretary and asks her why the fellow who just left was given a prescription for Viagra and he got Popsicle sticks and duct tape. “Oh, that gentleman has fee-for-service insurance and you have the HMO coverage.” ____ One of the most disheartening aspects of bedside manner is how quickly loyalty goes out the window when the patient has to pay a few dollars more for your service than for the provider who belongs to their HMO. It’s not hard to ...
 
 
 
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