We have all marveled at the gifts of talented clinicians at work, individuals who can put troubled patients at ease with a few simple words or make a complex diagnosis at a glance. Understanding how they acquired excellence and how to pass it on to others, however, poses a challenge.
So how do we learn excellence? The great medical virtues–compassion, fidelity (trust), justice, and integrity–develop gradually and frequently build on simpler virtues such as tact, self-awareness, good humor, reverence, and simplicity. These simpler virtues are less celebrated and often overlooked.
Tact.
It may seem odd to consider tact a virtue worthy of mention in that it can neither save a life nor advance technology. If it is taught, it is never taught formally. Highlighting its presence in a colleague might raise suspicions that it is being mentioned in lieu of other, more tangible, capabilities.
Tact can be defined as the ability in conversation to say and leave unsaid just the right things. Tact helps protect patients from excessive or needless exposure. Most of us remember as medical students how awkward it was to ask personal questions of our first patients, phrasing them too vaguely or too explicitly. In return, most patients, recognizing the clumsiness of our attempts, would reply with tolerant patience and perhaps more candor
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Humor identifies themes shared in common between physician and patient and in doing so combats the social isolation of disease. Seeing a physician's good humor inspires confidence that a situation is neither novel nor unmanageable. In conditions fraught with peril–as many diseases are–being able to identify potential respites, even if remote, can help patients look to a future that is not unbearably stark. By alleviating undue burdens of disease, good humor can help patients focus on practical issues of
As the story continues and McMurphy’s influence over the patients strengthens, the reader sees other occasions where the laughter is healing. With McMurphy’s big, boisterous laugh dominating the ward, the patients begin to laugh themselves. Their laughs sound awkward at first- forced, simulated- but nevertheless they are laughing and whether the patients, or Bromden realize it, this phony laugh does begin to heal them.
Dr. Jey Arthur, of Sutter Memorial Hospital, is an idol when it comes to physicians within a hospital’s Emergency Room. During his shift, the entire atmosphere of the Emergency Room changes. Nurses become more interactive with their patients and the patient’s rooms are no longer filled with misery and hopelessness. From the second the patient is assigned a room, Dr. Arthur is constantly visiting keeping the patient well informed and up to date on what the physicians and nurses are doing and their progress. From my time shadowing Dr. Aurther, not a single patient had lost a smile when he left the room. Beyond the care of the patient, Dr. Arthur has established absolute order with those working in the Emergency Room. Dr. Arthur has made himself
Various populations can benefit from the therapeutic use of humor, often it is used with either the exceptionally young or old populations, but the benefits of humor extend beyond age and gender limits. Commonly, it’s implemented in young populations with severe to mild physical or mental disabilities or with those experiencing serious and terminal illness (Saper, 1990). Humor is used as a method of coping with or coming to terms with life changing illnesses for both old an...
Professionalism is an adherence to a set of values comprising both a formally agreed-upon code of conduct and the informal expectations of colleagues, clients and society. The key values include acting in a patient's interest, responsiveness to the health needs of society, maintaining the highest standards of excellence in the practice of medicine and in the generation and dissemination of knowledge. In addition to medical knowledge and skills, medical professionals should present psychosocial and humanistic qualities such as caring, empathy, humility and compassion, as well as social responsibility and sensitivity to people's culture and beliefs. All these qualities are expected of members of highly trained professions.
“We look for medicine to be an orderly field of knowledge and procedure. But it is not. It is an imperfect science, an enterprise of constantly changing knowledge, uncertain information, fallible individuals, and at the same time lives on the line.” There is more to being a great physician than having intellect, clinical experience, and competence in the medical field. A doctor must be daring and genuinely driven to positively impact a patient’s life. A doctor needs stand tall, even in the face of uncertainty.
“When used sensitively, respecting the gravity of the situation, humor can build the connection among the caregiver, patient, and family” (Penson et al. 2005). Also, one must take into consideration cultural sensitivities, and avoid pointed remarks aimed directly at a patient or family member. Inappropriate humor can make an already stressful situation exponentially worse and increasingly more uncomfortable. Humor between patient and caregiver helps to create a bond, instills trust, and injects a bit of fun into the environment. Allowing a patient to view us as human, and not an emotionless robot gives us even better opportunity to help them reach their goals of improving their health. A patient that trusts a nurse will more readily relinquish information regarding how they are feeling. It may cause them to think about the sensations they’re feeling so that they are able to provide more thorough information, thus making our just a little easier when in discussions with physicians and other nurses. It also allows us an opportunity to make more thorough and appropriate nursing diagnoses that will better help the patient achieve their health care
Laughter also proves a vital role in helping the patients deal with their problems. Not only does it help them deal with problems but it also gave them the push toward progress on getting out of the institution.
In the end, laughter is proven as the best medicine by what it has done for the men on the ward; they have grown stronger and more confident, finally overtaking the Nurse for good. In the beginning they were weak and willing to do anything the Nurse told them to do, and even though laughter on the ward set them off guard, it made and impact on them immediately. Laughing for the men shows that they are sane and allow them to be happy. For as Sean O’ Casey said, laughter makes life worth living, and for the men, laughter made them stronger and allowed them to finally be free.
Laughter is often said to reduce stress and produce pain reliving hormones. It is the ‘fountain of youth’, the secret ingredient to longevity. A person who laughs all the time is, more often than not, healthier and happier than a person who rarely laughs at all. Laughter is known as a natural form of medicine. However, like many other things, some people take the laughter and the jokes too far. This is the case in the story, “The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor,” by Sherman Alexie.
Humour was an antiseptic that cleaned the deepest of personal wounds.” Jimmy said (208). Throughout Alexie story many jokes were achieved as an effective humor since it brought laughter “Well, I told her the doctor showed me my X-rays and my favoruite tumour was just about the size of a baseball…” (204) Jimmy said joking about the tragedy of his illness and his imminent death. Dr. Gill Greengross an evolutionary psychologist and anthropologist from the University of New Mexico said “humor can help people deal with tragedies.” So humor is effective and a very good way to cope with
I have had the opportunity to work alongside a diverse and extensive number of doctors and nurse practitioners, among other health professionals, which has exposed me to different ways of practicing, different work ethics, skills, and abilities. I know what patients typically consider to be desirable and undesirable traits of health professionals.
In the provision of a high quality care, many factors influence the way it is provided; however, IC is crucial. A healthy work environment would result from open communication among the staff, it would increase the employees and patients’ level of satisfaction and sense of well-being. Good communication is the cornerstone for the IC, it is a complex process which requires to develop some skills to learn how to transmit some information. One of the most common factors leading to medical errors, are due to miscommunication, sometimes because the message is not clearly sent, and others because it is not clearly received or it is misunderstood (Danna, 2015). In terms of communication non-verbal communication must be taken into consideration as well; body language, facial expressions, use of space, and touch, entail conscious or unconscious movements and gestures, also impacts the communication among the staff and
Being reliable, respectful, and competent working as a medical professional understanding the job, and performing it at high standards. Medical professionals
They are important in health care as patients want to be treated with value, compassion and by an ethical standard of respect that they deserve, “wellness depends on fairness, and not just the interpersonal kind but also the distributive, procedural, cultural and organizational”, (Duff, Rubenstein, & Prilleltensky, 2016). If we as medical professionals cannot act with integrity, we cannot treat patients with dignity, and if we cannot display accountability for our actions, then mistakes are likely to be repeated but now with malice. Ethical behavior in health care is important as we need to treat all people with humility and respect, “so whatever you wish that other would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets”, (Matthew 7:12 ESV). Unfortunately, in today’s society, instead of integrity, and accountability and proper ethical behavior, employers in the health care industry along with other industries have to mandate courses from their employees on compliance and ethics. This should be a given especially when it comes to the health care of
During my experiences working in the medical field, I quickly learned that medicine is not just about the intricacies of the body or prescribing medications to fix the body’s shortcomings. There are many more challenges and difficulties that are involved in healthcare that involve many interpersonal skills. This summer I have volunteered with the medical director at Glenaire Retirement Community in Cary, North Carolina. After a few weeks of shadowing, the medical director asked me to see a patient to discuss her primary complaints before he joined me. I went into the patient’s room, introduced myself, and waited for a response. After multiple attempts and no recognition from the patient, the physician came in to join us.