Rhetoric of Health: A blog created and maintained by students at the University of Texas.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
The Doctor Patient Relationship
According to an article in the New York Times, one patient is making a huge difference in medical education. Carolyn Bucksbaum is donating $42 million to the University of Chicago Medical School to fund a new institute devoted to training doctors in bedside manner and "compassion and empathy." Apparently patients who have better relationships with their doctors actually heal better. But most medical schools don't teach medical students to cultivate that relationship. This might be an interesting controversy to research: What should be the role of the doctor-patient-relationship in training for future doctors?
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This is a tough issue. On one hand, compassion and empathy is important, especially in the case of doctor/patient relationships. On the other hand, too much compassion and empathy could affect the doctor's decision making (i.e. "Dr. House" mentality) In my opinion, it should be taught, but not as a significant part of the medical program.
ReplyDeleteI think this is an interesting topic, but unfortunately I would see it falling to the side because of the emphasized importance to better understand research in cancer or HIV. I do think that the relationship of the doctor and patient is crucial, as we can see from mothers birthing in a hospital, but I think that there currently other factors in medicine that will push this topic to the back burner.
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