Week 8

Hello all! Welcome once again to my weekly posting on my SRP. It was another exciting week on site, with lots of new cases and interesting visits (per usual)! This week’s post however, will be centered around something I have not yet written about: difficult patients. Although I have definitely encountered a fair share of patients before this week, a particular person this week encompassed all possible characteristics of a “difficult patients” into one.

This patient was from Italy, spoke broken English, had mislabeled prescriptions, was set in her ways, could not focus, did not consistently take important medicines, relied heavily on the internet for medicine, and was was convinced she knew what to do. All of these problems individually can complicate a patient visit. Combined? The visit is not only incredibly frustrating but takes over an hour.

However, despite these frustrations and lengths, doctors must stay patient, calm, persistent and thorough with those in their care. And that is something I really respect in Dr. Barker and all doctors. No matter the field, there will always be patients who are convinced they know better than the doctor. But the providers deal with this, remaining professional.

We first had to one-by-one talk through all our patient’s medicines. As we confirmed dosages and which meds were taken daily, our patient would interject how she had not taken it consistently or read something online about negatives side effects. However, side effects are not actually at fault of a drug unless they are taken as directed, and the internet is a terrible doctor (for those of you who have never been on sites like Web MD pretty much every diagnosis is pregnancy or cancer; it is hilariously awful).

Constantly reminding the patient to focus on certain drugs that we were discussing at the moment was not only difficult, but critical. For example, pills to manage diabetes and high blood pressure must be taken in exact doses and timings. If the patient is sidetracked by side-effects (that are uncommon anyways) or other topics, it is hard to ensure as a provider the patient knows what they must do to remain in good health.

After going through medicines, another common issue with patients like these is them over-reporting issues that are not medical problems. They discuss EVERY issue they recognize, even if it is as simple as not being able to fall asleep the night before. With this, it is important to find a good balance between respecting the patients and demonstrating what are and are not reasons to be concerned. This is another skill Dr. Barker has demonstrated time and time again.

We talked through the actual issues which were rather limited, and were finally able to bring the visit to a close.  This visit taught me more than most visits, as I learned some the dire importance of certain communication skills, something I am glad I learned now.

Next week I am off for break as Dr. Barker is headed to Jamaica, but thanks for reading!