THE NYAYA HEALTH BLOG
How to Make Patients Happy
Narrating Nepal | October 3, 2012 · Roshan Bista
When I had headaches and some health problems during my childhood, my mother used to give me medicine to make me feel better. I thought medicine did the job, but I now realize it was my mother’s love that cured most of my illness. Now, as a medical doctor, I try to apply the same principle of curative love to my patient care, along with medicine to make them heal faster. Most of the time when I am in public places or outside the hospital, I hear people talking about the doctor’s approach towards them…sometimes good, sometimes bad, and sometimes exaggerated. I feel that all the complaints and dissatisfaction from the patients provide a learning curve for clinicians like us. In today’s world, everyone is very busy and is always in a hurry. Doctors are no exception. A clinician in a hurry has less time to spend with patients in outpatient and inpatient departments, as well as during counseling. A simple smile toward a patient, or a gentle touch and some sweet words can make a large difference in patient care. Medicine that is prescribed to them certainly does its work, but it is our job to act catalysts to cure the illnesses of our patients. In settings like ours, here in Achham, people sometimes say that we are just keeping patients in the wards and providing no treatment at all. I was actually confused to hear that we are not treating the patients. The point is that the people do not realize that many medications are given intravenously, and they think medications taken orally are the only treatment being given. I have come to the conclusion that there are four mantras to make patients happy: medicine plus love, care, and proper counseling.
Dr. Roshan Bista graduated from the Institute of Medicine, Kathmandu with an MBBS. He is currently the Medical Officer at Nyaya Health.
infact proper counselling is very important in maintaining dr-patient understanding especially here in nepal where nowadays drs are being attacked by pt party coz they are not counselled n they think nothing is being done nomatter how hard the dr is trying to treat the pt.