The doctor-patient relationship can be positive, negative, or neutral and can be established through one-time or ongoing interactions. Strong communication skills and empathy improve the quality of care. Patients can contribute by being open and polite, while being informed about medicine can improve the relationship.
The doctor-patient relationship, whether positive or negative, is established in all ongoing patient-doctor interactions. It may consist of a one-time consultation between a patient and a doctor or it may consist of a series of interactions over many years. It’s hard to paint all of these relationships with the brush because they can be positive, negative, or neutral, and they can be long-term or exist for only short periods of time. What medical experts generally recognize is that neutral or, even better, positive interactions between patients and medical professionals improve the quality of care through better communication.
The idea of the doctor-patient relationship is often closely linked to the concept of the bedside manner. Physicians who have superior communication and listening skills and exhibit emotional qualities such as empathy tend to get more medical information from patients and can get a more general sense of the patient’s health in the context of all other aspects of the patient’s life . Most doctors don’t have much time for lengthy communication with their clients, and this is especially true in primary care, where a shortage of doctors leads to less time spent with each patient. Many feel that this turn of events benefits no one and causes bad bedside manners.
There are reasons why it is extremely important for primary care physicians to develop strong doctor-patient relationship skills. Most surprisingly, primary care physicians tend to refer to specialists and can coordinate care with specialists. A strong patient knowledge is helpful in making the best referrals and continuing an ongoing relationship with patients to interpret a specialist’s findings.
The doctor-patient relationship can be governed by particular rules. Privacy in patient communications to physicians is often regulated so that patients can feel comfortable disclosing personal medical information. Physicians are discouraged from pursuing dual relationships with clients that cross between professional and personal. In some areas, sexual activity between doctors and patients is illegal, and this is certainly almost always true in interactions between psychiatrists and clients. These protections, whether regulated or not, are considered appropriate for keeping the relationship focused on medical matters.
When discussing the doctor-patient relationship, the description usually focuses on the doctor, but the patients also play a role. When seeking medical guidance, a patient can best contribute to the relationship by being open about the medical condition, trying to avoid narratives unrelated to the medical issue at hand, and remaining polite. The latter can be difficult to do when people are really sick, but in simple doctor visits for checkups, polite behavior is helpful.
Patients can also improve their relationships with doctors by knowing a little about medicine. The Internet has numerous informational sites on first aid, underlying diseases, and long-term conditions. An informed patient will improve doctor-patient relationships in all relationships except those where doctors are most selfish and feel that medicine is their exclusive purview. Most doctors are not like this and support patient involvement and education.
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