Blog
TAKING A RAPID PATIENT HISTORY: THE IMPORTANCE OF SILENCE
The pressure is on. You are in an acute care setting and there is a line of patients to see, some sicker than others. It is up to you to take a rapid history and initiate care. The patients are a complex mix: young and old; some with strong local accents, others from overseas who…
GIVE IT TO ME IN PLAIN ENGLISH PLEASE!
It’s very easy for medical professionals to talk to patients using the same medical language they learnt at university and use with colleagues. To us it’s familiar. It requires no effort. It’s precise. We understand perfectly what we mean. But patients without our background… are they really following us knowledgably, or, just nodding politely and…
CONSULTING ROOM LAYOUT
What has this got to do with anything you might ask? Well, I’m referring to where the patient sits in relation to the clinician… and the presence or absence of physical barriers between the individuals. It was something that I remarked as a patient here in France: the patient sits on one side of a…
MOTIVATING CHANGE
In the 1700s, Daniel Lambert’s morbid obesity made him rich and famous – so unique was his spectacular bulk at that time, that the curious would travel from afar and pay a shilling (= 5 pence) just to glimpse his ample form. In my childhood, though long dead, he was still considered Leicester’s most famous…
THE IMPORTANCE OF INTRODUCING YOURSELF
It would be fair to say that I’ve had mixed experiences of clinicians not introducing themselves, especially as a patient here in France. But I’m not alone and France isn’t the only country where introductions are not always forthcoming. It happens everywhere and, in some places more than others. The reality is that healthcare professionals…