Patch Adams : A Doctor Patient Relationship

For my book review assignment, I decided to choose the book titled “The Other End of the Stethoscope: 33 Insights for excellent patient care”. This story deal with Marcus and how he experiences the good and the bad of patient care after suffering severe injuries from a drunk driver. The reason I decided to choose this book is because this book provided a great perspective from the patient point of view of how a patient is cared for and treated in the hospital setting. One of the most important themes from the book was to understand the relationship between the caregiver and the patient, which is patient care. Marcus states the relationship between the health care provider and the patient are similar to that of a relationship between a parent and a child. The patient depends on us and looks to us for support and comfort. One of the fundamental components of forming good patient care is to be compassionate. Compassionate care could mean the difference between life and death for a patient. From reading this book, I understand that giving compassion to someone can take all shapes and forms. As a healthcare provider, we could make such a difference for a patient in need. You could have such a huge impact on patient, even if you only deal with one for a few minutes. Simple ordinary gestures of kindness such as telling a patient you are here for them or a simple smile can give a patient a good impression of the kind of care he or she will receive. For Marcus, it was the medical

Radiologic technology is a satisfying and rewarding career. It is a technical and refined science. As a radiological technologist, there are many essential duties and responsibilities that have to be fulfilled in order to be a good one. First of all, radiological technologists have to maintain a well-mannered and professional behavior when gathering information. They have to assure their patients that they are in good hands therefore; they give patients the uppermost quality of care and services. Second of all, the main responsibility of a healthcare provider is to keep all knowledge of a patient’s health record confidential or secluded. That means radiological technologists cannot talk about patients at home or with friends and classmates

Prominently featured in the mission statements of virtually of every medical school and medical institution in the world is the call for empathetic doctors. These institutions wish to train medical professionals that possess qualities of sympathy and compassion, and hospitals wish to employ health professionals that showcase similar qualities. The reality, however, is starkly different, as physicians, jaded by what they have seen in the medical world, lose the qualities that drove them to medicine in the first place. In Frank Huyler’s “The Blood of Strangers,” a collection of short stories from his time as a physician in the emergency room, Huyler uses the literary techniques of irony and imagery to depict the reality of the world of a medical professional. While Huyler provides several examples of both techniques in his accounts, moments from “A Difference of Opinion” and “The Secret” in particular stand out. Huyler uses irony and imagery in these two pieces to describe how medical professionals have lost their sense of compassion and empathy due to being jaded and desensitized by the awful incidents they have witnessed during their careers.

The PBS NOVA documentary “Doctors’ Diaries” gives the everyday person insight into the grueling yet rewarding life of seven doctors’ journey through medical school, and into their career. The viewer follows the life of seven medical students: Tom Tarter who is an emergency room physician, Luanda Grazette, a cardiologist, David Friedman, an ophthalmologist and heath researcher, Jane Leibschutz who is an internal medicine and primary care taker, Elliot Bennett-Guerrero who is an anesthesiologist, Cheryl Dorsey, a pediatrician, and Jay Bonner who is a psychiatrist. Throughout the film, the seven doctors face happiness, hardships, heartbreak, and personal disappoint.

The movie “The Doctor” takes an intimate look at the life of a surgeon who is immensely detached from his patients and often acts callously towards his patients and even his family. The arrogance and heartlessness that are seen in the beginning of the movie slowly become subdued when Jack McKee finds out that he has a malignant tumor. The diagnosis of the life-threatening tumor forces Jack to reevaluate his life and in turn allows Jack to see life from the perspective of a patient. The differences in McKee’s character are abundantly evident but one of the best examples of how much he truly changes are how starkly different the opening scene in the surgery suite is as compared to the final scene in the surgery suite. When the movie opens

Medical ethics could be considered a really broad spectrum that dictates the healthcare system. Defined as a system of moral principles that apply values and judgments to the practice of medicine. This however, can become quite tricky when deciding what is morally correct to one person to another. The movie Patch Adams deals firsthand with an aspect of medical ethics. The movie displays Robin Williams as the main character, Patch Adams, as a medical student who believes treating patients with happiness is the best way to help them. (Patch Adams, Tom Shadyac)

For as long as I could remember, I have seen my father rushing to the hospital in a white coat, answering pagers in the middle of important family conversations and attending night calls even in the most terrible weather. I had always wondered; what could be so important that it belittles every other responsibility in his life. It was only after many years of anguish and protests that it finally made sense to me. This defining moment of realization occurred when I first met a patient in his office. I saw how the gratitude in the patient’s eyes can provide a sense of fulfillment that triumphs all other feelings in the universe. It was human life that was most important. Being a doctor does not make you a mere healer but also gives you the responsibility of a caregiver. I had never felt more proud of my father and that was the day I felt the urge to relive this feeling many times over. It was there in that moment that I decided to pursue a career in medicine.

Medicine is a science of healing, but also an art. It takes intelligence in the sciences as well as precise skill in the art of medicine to heal successfully. In the Hippocratic Oath, Hippocrates highlights the importance of passing on the tradition of practicing medicine, maintaining respect for patients, and preserving humility within themselves. Modern day practice of this oath involve patient’s stories. Rita Charon in her article “What to do with Stories? The sciences of Narrative Medicine,” explores narrative writing and how to use it as a tool in healing patients. While Charon focuses on the writing of these stories, Atul Gawande’s book Being Mortal reflects on how to make more meaningful endings out of the stories of patients who

In the novel, No Apparent Distress: A Doctor’s Coming-of-Age on the Front Lines of American Medicine by Dr. Rachel Pearson, the author, Dr. Pearson, encounters several patients and experiences several personal challenges that builds her role as a doctor and helps her realize the social injustices in the healthcare system. With the personal encounters she faces with her patients, her family and her peers, Dr. Pearson learns that there are several flaws in the healthcare system that is beyond the doctor’s power to fix. She also learns that the education she receives progressively builds as she meets new patients and learns about their individual cases. She begins to understand that the nature of her education is surprising because one cannot fully understand something unless they have experienced it. Consequently, Dr.

A patient is a human being. Illness disturbs biological, social, psychological elements that make the patient human. It is not enough to centre and diagnoses and decisions on scientific data and empirical fact; medicine is about much more. The focus of this paper is to make the argument that the practice of medicine is a discipline that requires human empathy as well as scientific data and empirical fact to establish diagnoses with emphasis on five components of the physician-patient relationship: patient’s experience of illness, physician-patient communication, and proficiency of end of life care, medical ethics and spiritual growth. This position will be supported through the film “Wit (Nichols & Brokaw, 2002)” through the character Vivian Bearing 's revelation that illustrates a patient’s struggle with death and in the process exposes the distinction between medicine and science.

When asked what trait a physician bears in the 21st century, most would agree with compassion. Pierre Elias author of the narrative essay, “Insensible Losses: When The Medical Community Forgets The Family”, argues that physicians may be compassionate when it comes to their patients, but “lack a systematic approach to communicating with families when a patient’s health deteriorates unexpectedly, requiring a change in care providers” (Elias 707). Pierre Elias is a medical student from Duke University. He is nearing the end of his clinical rotations when he is forced by his inner moral conscience to deliver difficult news to a patient’s family whom no other physician makes time for.

A doctor’s mind and heart are very much involved in the patient’s road to recovery. Evidence in support of this statement is shown in William Carlos William poem “ The Red Wheelbarrow, and his essay “The Practice.” Also, in Jack Coulehan poems “The Man with Stars Inside Him, The Six Hundred Pound Man,” and the article “What’s a good doctor and how do you make one?” Individually, each reading and poem has expressed doctor’s emotions with their patients, and what characteristics have guided them into becoming a good doctor. The readings are a representation of how doctors are in fact remorseful when it comes to their patients. While reading these articles, I realize that doctors have been restricted to how much emotion they are allowed to show. All doctors have their weaknesses and their strengths, and they should be vocal about them especially when it comes to treating their patients.

By adopting these, a more familiar atmosphere can be created where a radiographer knows what is expected of him and who is he working with. This will help in minimizing the risk factor and improving efficiency(NHS National reporting and learning service 2008).( National Patient Safety Agency, 2009).

In the movie, Patch Adams, the main character, Patch, challenges the medical profession and its culture. His actions and beliefs have several contributions to this as well as the reactions of the people around him. To begin with, Patch is seen a few times throughout the film trying to make people laugh, which is not what doctors normally do. When explaining his strategies during a court case, Patch says, “A doctor’s mission should be not just to prevent death but also to improve the quality of life.”

The doctor-patient relationship always has been and will remain an essential basis of care, in which high quality information is gathered and procedures are made as well as provided. This relationship is a critical foundation to medical ethics that all doctors should attempt to follow and live by. Patients must also have confidence in their physicians to trust the solutions and work around created to counter act certain illnesses and disease. Doctor-patient relationships can directly be observed in both the stories and poems of Dr. William Carlos Williams as well as in the clinical tales of Dr. Oliver Sacks. Both of these doctors have very similar and diverse relationships with multiple patients