had the experience of interacting with a
difficult patient. It doesn't matter if you are
a pathologist, pediatrician or primary care
physician, you will have had the experience
of dealing with the difficult patient.
we care for. Doctors report that about one in
six patients are `difficult'. That translates into
three or four unpleasant visits with patients
each day
patient. It is something we have learned,
or maybe not learned, by trial and error.
Oftentimes,theerrorsassociatedwith
managing a difficult patient can lead to
undesirable consequences.
a three-step technique for managing a
difficult patient.
BECOME DIFFICULT?
situation, such as in our offices or in the
hospital, are out of their comfort zone. Even
the most self-confident individual when
placed in a situation of uncertainty may
become uncomfortable, anxious, and even
hostile when not knowing what to expect.
This relieves the patient's anxiety and can
comfortable when confronted with a
medical test, procedure or diagnosis with
an unfavorable prognosis.
commonplace to each of us is probably
a first-time experience for our patients.
Take, for example, the history and physical
examination. Patients will be required to
reveal personal secrets and issues that they
wouldn't share with their partners, best
friends or clergyman or woman. Then they
will commonly get undressed and wear a
gown that seldom covers the entire body, and
then be probed in areas of the body that have
never been touched or explored before.
why they are stressed when they come to the
doctor's office. We even have a name for it,
`white coat hypertension', as frequently these
visits are associated with a mild elevation of
the patient's blood pressure.
anger, potentially precipitating a conflict.
When patients are placed in a stressful
situation and when they are out of their
comfort zone, their threshold for anger
is lowered, and they will often say and do
things that would not normally occur outside
of the healthcare environment.
receptionists, office managers, file clerks
who find themselves outside of their comfort zone. Here
US-based Urologist.