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- Counterpoints<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
26 June, 2019<\/p>\n
A series of health scares recently put me in the way of varied styles of medical communication. After a fainting episode at work necessitated a number of anxiety-inducing tests, I discovered that scary terms such as cardiogram and biopsy can become wondrously gentler things when delivered by way of empathy.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
And in my case, often, they were. Wired with cables, attached to primary-coloured suction tabs, one can be forgiven for feeling like a human game of Twister. But the nurse administering my heart monitor understood the balance between listening and informing. Her simple statement that something was routine and her anecdotes providing context brought normality into the midst of alienating technology. It was welcome.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yet a slight ambiguity persists to the term bedside manner.\u00a0 It can excuse as much as compliment, perhaps because it is still regarded by some as the preserve of polite society.\u00a0 The possession of a good bedside manner is \u201cincumbent on a fashionable lady\u2019s doctor\u201d, stipulated an article entitled \u201cModern Requirements\u201d, in the Yorkshire Evening Press<\/i> in 1891.<\/p>\n
In the same era, a Punch<\/i> cartoon by George du Maurier pictured an urbane male doctor, coffee cup aloft, at the bedside of an indisposed female. \u201cOh, that\u2019s your doctor, is it? What sort of doctor is he?\u201d reads a visitor\u2019s speech bubble. The patient\u2019s reply: \u201cOh well, I don\u2019t know much about his ability; but he\u2019s got a very good bedside manner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fast-forward a century and there is a definite shift. Critical diagnostic ability and the manner of its communication are regarded as more of a unit. A 1991 film, The Doctor<\/i>, loosely based on Dr Edward Rosenbaum\u2019s autobiographical A Taste of My Own Medicine<\/i>, documents the experience of throat cancer which took him from being surgeon to patient. Being on the \u201creceiving end\u201d transformed his views about conveying information. Evident sympathy became his priority, with the aim that patients feel comfortable, reassured, and welcome.<\/p>\n
Some doctors have an intuitive rapport. For others it\u2019s a work in progress. I understand this most where empathy is absent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d better include an echocardiogram,\u201d said one GP, tartly and without further explanation. \u201cIs there an additional problem shown in my scan?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, it\u2019s not normal to faint for no reason, is it? I do have other patients.\u201d Both are true. The trick is not to make you feel it.<\/p>\n
Bedside manner isn\u2019t always intended as praise. But it should be. <\/p>\n
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Contributors: February 2020<\/a>
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\nLetters: Priceless plans; Marxist pedagogy; Tibet and China; The name game<\/a>
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A mental balm<\/a><\/p>\nWhat to read next<\/h6>\n
<\/h3>\n
\nContributors: February 2020<\/a>
\n
\nLetters: Priceless plans; Marxist pedagogy; Tibet and China; The name game<\/a>
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