Difficult Patients

This case study aims to critically analyse an episode of care in relation to a patient suffering from complex health care needs. The focus of the assignment includes three aspects of care: depression, malnutrition and their relationship to lung cancer.

These are usually the people that fill out the surveys stating that they waited too long, or they were not treated fairly. As one article quotes “Patients can be very satisfied and dead an hour later. Sometimes hearing bad news is not going to result in a satisfied patient, yet the patient could be a well-informed, prepared patient” (Robbins, 2015). Patient education encompassing everything healthcare is key. Not just how to take care of their sutures, proper wound care, or dosing instructions on their new medications; but they need to be fully informed of the process it takes in the busy emergency rooms, and why some patients get prioritized over others. The power needs to be taken out of their hands from rating hot meals as a gradient of medical care. They need to be truly rating the provider’s bedside manner and the outcome of their

It is important for a counselor to proper an action plan to overcome barriers for the client during treatment. Counseling is not about taking and not taking the proper actions. When a client is having barriers it is very important for the counselor to identify those barriers and set an action plan to help client overcome the obstacles. The counselor should identify the principles for a well action plan, discuss barriers that a client might encounter, outline intervention that will help with the barriers, list of community resources that will help client if need it and outlined aftercare plan when treatment is over.

Within this case study I am going to use two of the Chapelhow et al. (2005) enablers to discuss and reflect on the care of a patient I have been involved with on placement over a period of 5 weeks. ‘Enablers are the essential and underpinning skills that come together to provide expert professional practice’ (Chapelhow, C et al. 2005, p.2). These include; assessment, communication, documentation, risk, professional decision making and managing uncertainty. The enablers work together to provide a holistic approach to the care of patients in health care settings. I am going to focus on and discuss two of the enablers, linking them both together, which will be assessment and communication as I believe these two enablers can be related most to my patient.

The patient's friends family and workmates may also add to anxiety by adopting a different attitude towards the patient. Some

While in most circumstances, empathy is a crucial tool in understanding the patient and their problems, there is also a distinct line drawn between the appropriate amount of empathy and going overboard. Healthcare professionals should be aware that while empathy is an important factor of their jobs, it is just as important to not become emotionally involved in patients’ lives. A careful balancing act is needed in order to sustain the appropriate level of empathy without letting the emotional rollercoasters of patient lives interfere with the work and personal life of the healthcare professional.

Having a health scare can cause many people, such as Mrs. Johnson, to experience high levels of stress and anxiety. Stress and anxiety negatively affect patient physiological statuses, altering the way they normally handle and cope with situations. On the other hand, Allison is experienced in dealing with frightened and angry patients. When she was new to the unit, these patients used to frighten her, which could have negatively affected her interactions with her patients. Now, she is able to handle these situations without becoming afraid or offended. This will lead to more positive interactions with her patients rather than negative ones.

Self-awareness is another important aspect to consider during this stage. I try to prepare myself for the encounter with a patient by clearing my mind from any distractions/stresses caused by previous consultations, so that I can focus entirely on the new patient. Walsh, Crumbie and Reveley (2004) explain that consultations can be stressful and emotionally draining and, in a busy clinical environment, it is easy to hang on to charged emotions from a previous encounter. Kaufman (2008) agrees that before the patient arrives in the room the practitioner should deal with, or at least acknowledge any negative feelings or stress.

While in medical school many students are required to meet certain emotional expectations, In Allen C. Smith, III: and Sheryl Kleinman Article called "Managing Emotions in the Medical School: Students ' Contacts with the Living and the Dead.", they go into the depth of what is expected and what emotional problems can arise from there expectations.

While examining the interpersonal interactions between doctors and patients it is clear that doctors completely control the talk time. Doctors ask a lot of "yes" or "no" answered questions, not allowing the patient to express very much emotional information. This is one of the ways that doctors, in this type of environment, try to stay emotionally detached from patients. An example of this can also be found in the movie when all the experienced doctors only refer to patients as their certain illnesses. These doctors feel that names, emotions, hobbies, etc. are just distractions that get in the way of their professional duties.

I have experienced handling so many personalities of patients. A patient can seem calm before they go to surgery and then come out of the OR thrashing around and have to be restrained. I have also seen how surgeons treat the whole patient. Being a doctor isn’t just about taking out a gallbladder and making the patient feel better. It is also about talking to the patient before surgery and after surgery to see how they are doing. I have seen calm patients, angry patients, rude patients, and psychotic patients. I have had to monitor patients that thrash around in bed or who pick up their arm or their leg that was just operated on. I have learned that doctors have to deal with all kinds of patients. I help the nurses and see how they have to keep the patient calm and breathing. I volunteer twelve hours a week because I want to gain a lot of experience in the hospital. The nurses appreciate me being there

Clients’ emotions have a large impact on services rendered. There are factors; such as, different cultures, protecting others, or just scared; which can keep a client from disclosing emotions. A person culture has an impact on their reaction to the helper because they may view situations differently. If the counselor do not have a clear concept of oneself, it can have a negative impact on the delivery services for people of another background. We must not be too talkative, avoidant, or anxious when talking with clients. These actions can help or harm the client success of treatment if the interviewer do not know how to correspond properly.

Customer services is a very important part of managing ongoing client/patient relationships, because they are the key to bringing in revenue. The concept of customer service is to deliver outstanding services so the customers will have a great experience. I currently work in the healthcare industry and the company that I work for is starting to have trainings and meetings to improve customer service to our clients to help increase our patient satisfaction levels. There are some employees who strive to help the patient by going far and beyond their line of duties, and as others are burned out and feel like they just need to get the patient in and out without really understanding the patient’s needs or

Every person is diverse in many ways. It is through their thoughts, encounters, life experiences that make people who they are today. Health care professionals are impacted everyday with their psychosocial factors that they are aware of and unaware of.” Some may believe that considering psychosocial factors is impractical because of time constraints (Falvo, Pg 82). There are health care professionals that ignore or try avoiding patient’s psychosocial factors because of feelings of being overwhelmed or incompetent because they don’t know how to handle the issue at hand. An example would be a doctor prescribing medication to a patient who does not believe in

Having concise background knowledge of patients, consequently leads to more accurate treatments and assessments. Such as radiographers who are frequently faced with patients, colleagues and patient kin overwhelmed with emotions, such as trauma or fear (Booth, 2008). Radiographers are often one of the initial professional contacts with patients and loved ones, when patients are undergoing diagnosis or treatment. A radiographer should possess interpersonal skills, to effectively assess patient’s emotional responses to the medical situation to ensure accurate assessments as well as promote patient’s willingness to participate (Booth, 2008) (Mackay et al., 2010). Hence, not being able to build trust with a patient may have serious implications on outcomes.