The doctor-patient relationship
The powerful communication between doctor-patient and doctor-attendant can overcome the stressful unpleasant emotions of diseases; it is an unseen healing power or honour of medical practitioners that the creator has bestowed upon them. The empathy, time spent with the patient, the healing touch of the doctor, and the demi-god status of the doctor are equally important factors to manage the patients.
Yesterday, I read a note of Dr Rantnadeep Chaskar, a COO of a corporate hospital in Bangladesh. He mentioned, "While medical science has been making rapid strides in the last decades, the power of a doctor-patient relationship is much beyond just the technical advancements for treating a disease. It is the rapport, confidence and trust that the doctor develops with the patient that creates the relationship of mutual respect, knowledge sharing and genuineness."
Power of simplicity and power of compassion and healing can break the emotional stress cycle of a patient. Doctors and nurses know that the friendly touch can improve blood pressure and decrease the stress. Tender touch lowers the level of cortisol, a stress hormone and may increase oxytocin, a hormone that plays a role in trust and emotional bonding, and oxytocin can induce anti-stress like effects.
Modern medicine has undermined the importance of touch. The power of touch is amazing. Doctors have to talk to his patients, look into their eyes, connect with them and earn their trust. Touch, compassion and care are equally important to all tools and technicalities of medicine.
Touch is inheritably humanising, and for a doctor-patient relationship to have meaning beyond that of a business interaction, there needs to be trust – from both ends.
I had a child patient with heart failure. She called me her 'dopamine', an essential medicine for heart failure. I felt blessed that I could gain her trust and make a positive impact on her life.
Baby patients are more sensitive. Parents feel extremely stressed out during their children's sickness. I saw that sometimes when parents come to me with their sick child, they are too stressed to even talk.
To make them comfortable is as important as giving the technical management to their babies. Even after doing any procedure they feel so blessed that they can place us on the same level of god. And during their discharge they just gave us the immense happiness by saying, "this is your child".
Once I found out that one of my little patients would not take his breakfast until I would pay him a visit and the feeling I got after knowing this was heart-warming. This is the bond I can feel with my patients. And this mutual trust is the healing power.
So, a physician should have that inner love, respect and responsibilities towards the patients which will give return. Paying enough time during history taking, examination and counselling before starting medication is essential.
Eye contact, empathetic facial expression and caring tender touch of the physician can build up an excellent bond between doctor-patient which is actually the magnificent quality of the fraternity of medical professionals.
The writer is a Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist at Apollo Hospitals, Dhaka.
Email: nazrintahera71@gmail.com