The Clinical Consultation; Patient/Doctor Dynamics, or Consultations Skills in Primary Care

1051 Words5 Pages
During my placement at the allocated GP surgery I had the opportunity to observe how the doctor interacted with his patients as well as learn some of the foundation skills that are an important and integral part of my own training. The doctor would tell us a brief medical history about the patient before they walked in to the consultation. What I found fascinating was the fact that even if the doctor had seen these patients in the past he would never predict what their presenting complaint on that particular day would be and I thought this was a reflection of the medical profession in general; it is a dynamic kaleidoscopic career where no two days are ever the same. 2. Mrs A is one of the ladies I met on our first visit to the GP placement; she was an outspoken 40 year old lady who had come to see the doctor on that particular day as she was having pain when swallowing. Her records showed that she had been to the surgery to see our doctor’s colleague during the past week. Mrs A was also had asthma and diabetes. I wondered to myself before I met her why she would be back so soon as I assumed that she might not have finished the medication she had been given on the last visit. What surprised me most with Mrs A was her use of informal language that other people might find offensive and I particularly noted that the doctor answered appropriately as though there was nothing different about her use of language. The “non- reaction” from the doctor was an indication of an existence of a good doctor – patient relationship. It seemed to show that the doctor knew her use of that language was not meant as an offence but it was just the way she was used to speaking. I thought that if I had been faced with a patient who was using the same language I might have felt inclined to ask them to speak in an appropriate manner. In retrospect I think this might make the

More about The Clinical Consultation; Patient/Doctor Dynamics, or Consultations Skills in Primary Care

Open Document