In human culture, the oldest art is communication. A person who masterfully masters it will always be able to succeed. Of particular importance is the process of communication in those professional areas that involve close contact of individuals. And one of these areas is medicine.
Historically, the doctor has always occupied a dominant position in relations with patients and independently chose the methods of diagnosis and treatment. This status determined his high personal responsibility for the results and consequences of diagnosis and treatment.
But today, a well-built relationship between a doctor and a patient opens up new opportunities for improving the effectiveness of treatment.
A revolution in the mind
In recent years, there have been truly revolutionary changes in the relationship between doctor and patient. Based on the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (Strasbourg, 2005), patients have gained the right to participate in the process of diagnosis and treatment, so there is an increasing desire for an open dialogue with doctors.
This is clearly expressed in private clinics of aesthetic and plastic surgery, where, in fact, the requirements and desires of the patient are decisive. In addition, the patient is no longer satisfied with the passive role. He wants to be treated as a person who is able to independently make a reasonable choice. This new type of relationship obliges the doctor to guarantee those rights of the patient, which are also defined in the articles of the Fundamentals of Ukrainian Legislation on the Protection of the Health of Citizens.
Interpersonal relations have begun to change since 1948, when the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since then, partnerships have come to the fore in most countries. 20 years later, these ideas became the basis of relationships in medicine: in 1969, the "Patient Rights to Autonomy" was adopted in the United States.
The acuteness of the problem of the relationship between the doctor and the patient is also increasing because the modern technization of medicine is becoming the wall that separates the doctor and the patient, turning the doctor into a biotechnologist. B. Lown in the preface to the book of the famous writer N. Cousins "The Doctor's Heart" writes that "... scientific and technological progress creates" cybernetic paradox "- the less a doctor can do himself, the more he relies on equipment."
The primordial divergence between science and ethics is growing: science moves forward, while human nature and psychological reality remain stable. If artistic creativity assimilates the past and continues it, then science denies the past from which it emerged. The doctor, being a representative of science, is not satisfied with general provisions, but actually achieves unambiguous answers. Thus, B. Lown concludes: “Science can explain how the virus multiplies, but cannot answer why the tear was shed.”
Communication is the foundation of the basics
Whatever the trends in the development of clinical medicine and surgery in general, aesthetic and plastic surgery in particular, there are always two in the center - the doctor and the patient. Of course, the patient will become more and more literate, discriminating and demanding. And the doctor is constantly approaching the image of a specialist that exists in the minds of each patient.
In this regard, the Edinburgh Declaration of the World Federation of Medical Education (1988) notes that every patient should have the opportunity to meet in the person of a doctor an attentive listener, a careful observer, an effective clinician. Therefore, effective interaction and communication in the doctor / patient system is a central link in achieving doctor and patient satisfaction with the treatment process.
Good doctor/patient communication cannot be seen as just an intuitive gift, because it is a professional skill, a skill that can be learned. Recently, when the priority of the market was proclaimed on the planet, the ideals and slogans of culture, the criteria for personal choice have changed, there has been a kind of decline in intelligence, spirituality.
This often puts a person on the brink of so-called "self-destructive behavior"; - Drunkenness, drug addiction, suicide. The doctor increasingly has to deal with people whose personality has been covered by the shadow of self-destruction.
Removing Barriers
Establishing good relations between the doctor and the patient, facilitating the patient's self-disclosure by eliminating formal-role interaction and establishing "interpersonal communication"; reduces the barriers that initially exist between the doctor and the patient. Filter "trust - distrust" leads to the fact that absolutely sincere information may not be perceived, and false - assimilated.
The existence of a "filter" on the part of a doctor when communicating with a patient, as a rule, is associated with a biased attitude towards this patient, a tendency to trust some complaints and not take into account others. All these factors cause selectivity in the perception of information and "deformation" of information. when evaluating the information received.
The existence of a "filter" on the part of the patient is due to a number of certain ideas about the methods of surgical treatment, through the prism of which the patient evaluates all the appointments and recommendations offered to him. To overcome this barrier, it is necessary, firstly, to pay special attention to the first meeting with the patient and in the first conversation to get an idea of \u200b\u200bhis needs.
Secondly, to provide the patient with the opportunity to express their claims and wishes. Thirdly, find ways to instill confidence in the patient in himself and in the chosen method of treatment. In the process of communication between a doctor and a patient, the measure of effectiveness is how much the doctor managed to win the trust of his patient, how much the doctor managed to change the patient's pathological attitudes. All this is possible only if the barriers that have arisen in the process of communication are successfully overcome.
Money and Communication
Financial problems can also damage the establishment of a good doctor-patient relationship. In fact, financial issues should not complicate the cooperation of the doctor with the patient. Despite this, their relationship is becoming more and more like a relationship between business people.
Although everyone knows that only good treatment from a good specialist brings a good result, and this costs money. Both the will of the doctor and the will of the patient are connected with the financial side of the problem. The doctor is free to provide the patient with all the best types of diagnostics, while the patient has the right to accept his services or, refusing them, go to another specialist.
Interpersonal contact
At the heart of the doctor-patient relationship is a different level of awareness. In this aspect, it is appropriate to quote the words of G. A. Zakharyin: “A doctor must be independent, and not only as a poet, as an artist, but also above this, as a figure who is trusted with the most precious thing - health and life.” Trust in the doctor is an essential component of the treatment and diagnostic process. The doctor's support, understanding and empathy is the key to establishing cooperation between the doctor and the patient. The doctor must be able to put himself in the place of the patient, to look at the world through his eyes.
Technological progress destroys this direct connection. When the doctor allows the machine to interfere with the relationship between himself and the patient, he risks losing his powerful healing influence. Even the most modern technology cannot replace the fruitful interaction between the doctor and the patient.
Without the art of human communication, it is impossible to achieve a systematic approach to health care. In 1991, the Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, N. Cousins, correctly wrote in his book Anatomy of a Disease: “Medicine, which has adopted a systematic approach to health, relies on the warmth of human contacts, and not on the cold of equipment.”
And Andrey Kharkov, head of the Medical Club clinic, believes that in our difficult times it is important for doctors to have both professional and moral guidelines. And from these positions to consider their actions in life and in medicine. The profession of a doctor is not only performing manipulations. He must become what he should be - the "salt of the earth", the bearer of intelligence, the leader who shapes society.
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As the ancient Chinese proverb says, "to doubt is uncomfortable, to be sure is ridiculous."
So when physicians make decisions together with patients, they must be able to share their doubts. Frustrated expectations do not contribute to fruitful cooperation. Therefore, in the relationship between the doctor and the patient, the main factors were and remain questions of trust, cooperation and openness.
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