Introduction

There are times when all a patient needs is to see that beaming smile on a health practitioner’s face. I strongly believe that only a positive attitude towards a patient can help patients feel more optimistic and give them the motivation to continue with their treatment.

A kind and reassuring smile can make a patient feel less alone and make them more confident in their ability to fight back against their illness. A health practitioner’s responsibility is to enlighten and help his patient get well. Perhaps, he or she needs that real smile to complete and make that medical therapy most effective. It is so obvious that we miss this kind of therapy thus smiling to a patient and gently tapping or rubbing their shoulders so they feel loved. Sometimes a patient’s present health condition keeps getting worse because of the shock of learning they are seriously ill.

The Invisible Fiber Of Emotion

Effective communication is the foundation of a strong relationship, I will call it an “invisible fiber of emotions”. It is essential for healthcare, for both patients and medical staff to have that smiling faces as they converse during ward rounds or ward work. Communication skills are essential for fast patient recovery. In other words, according to the World Health Organization’s definition of health, “health is a condition of full physical, mental, and social well-being and not only the absence of disease or disability.” With this definition, we are also thought that health is unique. So we must also provide patients with unique mental support thus including a beautiful smile.

How Can You Improve Your Communication Skills As A Doctor Or A Nurse?

Now to the heroes of the game, thus the physician and his team. The patient always looks up to you as the best and has all his trust in your knowledge. Hence a big smile from you the Doctor fires that impulse from the frontal lobe and energizes the patient’s hope.

Being a good listener means paying attention without interjecting.

Are you a health worker? If yes, have you been a patient before? How do you feel when your colleagues gave you that smile because they knew you are a health practitioner? Sometimes patients indeed feel that doctors and nurses behave rudely towards them. Yes, and with the pain and bitterness patients do sometimes show or exercise their right or power if they are in a position to do so.

Duty Calls as a Health Practitioner

I do remember one night at duty in the emergency department during my 5th-year medical rotation. It was about 11 pm when a middle-aged man walked in complaining of palpitation and headaches. The nurse on duty checked his vitals quickly as possible thinking perhaps might be due to high blood pressure. She later noticed his vitals were fine, and stable so she only set up a line access (cannula) in case it might come in handy later and she went attending to others whose conditions were very critical.

Patient’s Scandals

So it was about 1 hr later this man was still seated, with no medication nor any other attention, 2hrs into it still no attention, then finally the 3rd hour he fell asleep on his bed without any other attention nor medication. It was exactly 3am the next day when I heard a scream from the young man request for the removal of the cannula and rudely requesting to leave for another hospital. I can hear the anger in his voice pounding with strength, his veins were prominent at a glance, could see tremors as he moves his hands, he was very bored.

I paused and wondered. This man has stable vitals almost everything about him looks normal, and his blood pressure was fine. The temperature looks good, and random blood glucose was done on arrival and was also good, what else does he want? I thought to myself – perhaps rest but not medication. Sometimes your body needs a good amount of rest to keep going and be healthy. We work all day without thinking about rest. Our bodies are highly organized entities that need continual care until our health finally catches up to us with age.  The nurse had no sleep, up and downs she was on her duties, and here is an angry man that is talking and yelling so loud that she is not doing her job. This led to a big question for you “If it were you what would you have done“?

In Conclusion

This blog article asks you a very important question: should the nurse keep her cool and smile at this very angry patient or should she get angry as well and exchange words with him? It does not call for any major concerned right? Because the patient is always right since it is your core duty that your patient feels healthy and recovers fully. Being a health practitioner, comes with great responsibilities. Patients are in the hospital because of one thing or the other. They knew very well that you can help them. Moreover, you know more about their body than them, so you must be “patient” as the name suggested, and treat them.

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