A few years ago, I was talking with an old mentor about which patients got better care. He made some comment about how he was pretty sure that if they did a study on body odor, they'd find that the smelly patients got worse care. The outcome of the study would be to encourage a shower before heading off to that doctor's appointment.
In a similar fashion, the Archives of Internal Medicine just came out (covered by Toilet Paper Pope on the Well Blog) with an article on how (GASP!) if you have a better relationship with your doctor, you are more likely to get good care.
A good relationship. You know. The kind of thing her blog seeks to destroy.
I'm not sure how this is in any way controversial. If I have a good relationship with the people who support me, they are more likely to prioritize work I give them over the work from someone else who is rude to them. This can be intentional or subconscious. I'm not sure if Toilet Paper thinks that doctors are supposed to be "above" that, but the fact is (and I know this is going to be a shocker too), doctors are people too. We put our pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else.
Despite our efforts to treat everyone equally, it is simply not physically possible.
I know from my standpoint that I just click better with certain patients. It's not that I actively try to dislike some, it's just that some people make me work a lot harder to extract their story, to find out what's going on.
Of course there are some loathsome patients thrown into the mix as well. The paranoid ones who think that doctors are all money grubbing bastards who don't care about their patients at all, who storm out of the room in a hissy fit the moment you say something that isn't music to their ears. They're not exactly easy to care for. You do try. But consider what you would do if your client started shrieking at you in monosyllables every time you went to talk to them. It would make the experience not only unpleasant, but also it would make it hard to figure out how to help this person.
You hear from a lot of people like this on the Toilet Paper blog.
This is common sense, people.
So folks, do your best to be pleasant to your doctors. And if you hate your doctor, try to switch. You and she clearly aren't connecting.
And for the love of God, if possible take a shower before you go. Rinse that fungus from underneath that breast and we're more likely to find the lump that is sitting there. Unfortunately, that pesky gag reflex simply can't be trained away.
1 Pearls of Wisdom:
Amen. I find it interesting to hear that patients once took a great deal of effort to clean up and appear in better straits than they normally appeared when they went to the doctor. Now you get interesting smells combining from too much smoking, BO, infection, and lack of shower/laundry for days/weeks. Or you get some jackass coming in for an appointment hours late, refusing to remove their sunglasses or turn off their cell phones, and get upset when you act humanly about the experience. I don't read this particular blog you're writing about because it makes me madder than hell when I read some comments, but I find it interesting that the idea would be considered controversial at all.
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