as a physician, you have to deal with the worst kind of human
emotion.. fear.
People don’t come to you because they are sick, they come to
you because they are scared. When someone starts having an unusual unpleasant
feeling, they go like “what the hell is wrong is with me”, they panic and fear
it might be something serious and that’s when they rush to your workplace.
fear is your biggest enemy as a doctor, not the disease, you can
handle the disease by opening your book or surfing the internet, but no book
will teach you how to conquer your patient’s fear which you really need to do
to reach them and be able to conquer the disease itself..
as a doctor, the patient thinks you have magical powers and
you know all that it takes to take their pain away. well, of course you don’t
have any of those powers and as it happens, so many times you may have totally
no idea what you should do and even need to consult one of your superiors no
matter how old or experienced you are, your patient doesn’t have to find out
that, you are their biggest hope and they should keep that hope alive.. so,
just keep that in mind.
since i got to understand and appreciate the value of conquering
your patient’s fear and the way they look at you as their therapist, i started
thinking of ways that could help in taking that fear away, i could think of
some things and they work..
1. FAITH.. it is an important tool to use, especially in a
place like the middle east where almost all citizens who do believe that their God
can take their pain away and only Him can heal them. this may sound nonsense to
some, but you can’t ever ignore people’s faith, especially when you can use
that to help your patient get better or at least accept their disease. so, don’t
underestimate that.
2. STATISTICS.. you can use this in certain cases that
really-needs reassurance when you’re lucky enough to be dealing with a serious
illness that medical statistics say it is curable.. leukemia in children for
example, the 5-year-survival rates has increased up to 90% in children with ALL
with real chances of complete cure afterwards for those who have survived.. you
can’t neglect such a great piece of info when a mother of a leukemic patient
comes to you seeking a ray of hope for her diseased child
3. HIDING THE TRUTH.. sometimes hiding the true nature f your patient’s
illness can help, this is still controversy, some believe that the patient have
the right to know every detail about their disease, their options and chances.. and this is true
of course, but sometimes knowing the truth can cause more harm to your patient
than benifits, like when you’re dealing with an incurable fatal disease like
cancer, the patient won’t get much benefit from knowing he’s probably goin’ to
die soon, I think it is better to hide it from them, especially if old and
there’s someone to take care of them like children or siblings.. it’s enough to
tell their caregiver to get them in the picture and make them understand their
role in the therapy.. too bad you can’t hold the truth for so long..
these are just tries and what’s really important is the point
behind it all which i honestly hope all my colleagues in the medical field will
get, especially physicians who have to deal with chronic illnesses Vs surgeons
who usually provide an absolute end to the complaint.
