Patients Are Powerful

Post from Healthcare300.wordpress.com

As health care providers we are always taught to not let our emotions regarding any particular subject interfere with our ability to treat a patient.  Easy enough concept perhaps, but actually following through with that thought is sometime difficult.  What happens when a health care provider, a nurse or a doctor lets their feelings about a patient or patient’s actions drive their care decisions?  Well, typically it plays out against the patient’s best interest.

Patients that present to local emergency departments that are suspected of drug seeking are often ignored by providers in hopes that they will become so frustrated with waiting that they will just leave the ER. Other times care will be purposely delayed for patients that are rude, “whiny”, or in some other way annoying.  Providers will often minimize a patient’s level of pain and health and not offer analgesics even though they are told by the patient that they hurt.  This is often seen when patients come in to an ER setting in a histrionic state.

Letting value judgments about patients or patient’s actions drive care decisions in most cases would be considered counterproductive.  Health care providers must continually evaluate their own biases and look beyond the realm of their own perspectives and focus on treating the patient appropriately.  Frequently the only way to combat this prejudice is to have a patient advocate.  Family members are often advocating for their loved ones with health care providers. In several other instances nurses play a huge part in patient advocacy. The issue here is that providers are not always in tune with the needs of their patients.  Call it being human, call it something else. The fact remains that whether or not providers have biases toward patients should be irrelevant when it comes to making care decisions.

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