Download Good communication between a doctor and a patient is necessary

First point
Good communication between a doctor and a patient is necessary for good
quality and ethical health care.
Doctors need to talk and listen to patients to receive information from them.
This is true despite the sophisticated technology that doctors has available to do
their work. Talking and listening to the patient helps the doctor to make a
diagnosis.
Communication with the patient is also necessary for the patient to understand
what (s)he suffers from, how the disease can be treated, and what (s)he must do
for the treatment to be as successful as possible. If the patient does not
understand the doctor’s treatment advice, she might not recover as fast and fully
as possible. Poor understanding might also require the patient to make a second
visit to the doctor, or to another doctor, and possibly to receive more medication.
This increases the cost of the health care.
The patient has a right to participate in decisions about his/her health care. To
exercise this right the patient needs to receive sufficient and understandable
information from her doctor.
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Second point
Doctors think of themselves as scientists. We may say that they have a
scientific self-image. Doctors possibly acquire this view of themselves during
their medical training. We, the consumers of health care, also often think of our
doctors as scientists.
When I say that doctors think of themselves as scientists, I mean that they think
of themselves as natural scientists. By the natural sciences I mean physics,
chemistry and biology.
Most natural scientists believe that the only aspects of the world that we can
have knowledge about are those aspects that we can experience with our
senses. For instance the parts of the world that we can see, hear and touch. This
includes aspects of the world that we can experience through the use of
technology, such as microscopes, X-rays and stethoscopes.
According to this view, when we make statements about things that cannot be
observed through the senses, such as ethical or religious statements or
statements about our inner experiences, we cannot claim that such statements
are true or meaningful.
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Third point
What does the doctor’s view of himself as a natural scientist, and his belief about
the nature of the world and of knowledge, mean for the way he views and
responds to his patients?
The doctor, who sees himself as a scientist, is likely to focus almost exclusively
on the physical or observable aspects of the patient’s disease. The patient’s
mind, that is her thoughts and emotions, as well as her social world is not of
much importance to the doctor who has been trained to act as a natural scientist.
Medical professionals may thus easily think that their role is simply to physically
treat physical disorders. They are likely to think that communication with
patients is not very important to their work.
When doctors do not communicate sufficiently with their patients it can have
very negative consequences for both parties. Patients may feel uncared for and
misunderstood. Patients may not understand what is wrong with them or how
to follow the doctor’s advice after leaving the consulting room or hospital.
Patients’ right to take part in decisions about their health care is also violated if
the doctor does not give enough information to the patient or give the patient
enough time to ask questions and to understand their answers. Good
communication between the doctor and patient is especially important when the
patient suffers from a chronic disorder that cannot be cured.
The doctor also suffers when there is not sufficient communication with patients.
The doctor may feel frustrated at being unable to care for patients in the way
(s)he hoped to do when they entered medical school. The doctors might also be
frustrated when wrong diagnoses are made or treatment advice is not followed
because of poor communication with the patient. Another very negative
consequence might be that the patient takes the doctor to court over
misunderstandings and mistakes that could have been prevented if there was
sufficient communication between the two parties.
Word count: 324
Total word count: 687