The Doctor-Patient
Relationship: Opportunity to Heal
The "doctor-patient" relationship has traditionally been treated by societies
as a sacred (and legally- and morally-bound) relationship for millennia.
This is so because the sharing of information about ourselves as patients
to our physicians is a very vulnerable, intimate process that frequently
involves (and, indeed, may require) the revealing of our innermost selves
in the course of seeking health care. This "revealing" is at the core of
the healing process and is not exclusive to medical physicians and includes
practitioners and healers of all types. Furthermore, although we may be
unaware of it at times, this "revealing" includes not only our desire to
be free from or reverse our illnesses to live fuller and longer live, but
also is a vehicle for the continued development of our self-awareness and
understanding so vital to the development of self and its relationship to
others. In this sense, this relationship is as important as all our others--
marriage, familial, friendships, professional, etc. It is through our illnesses
(and the contrast between the states of health and illness) that we come
to understand who we and our fellow humans are and how to renew our vital
relationship with ourselves and to our environment.
In this article, I seek to explore this hallowed relationship in light of
how both practitioner and patient may reawaken, reexplore and deepen their
understanding of it and employ it to its true maximum potential for healing
and the love of self and other. No less important is the healing of the
relationship between medical physicians specifically and patients at a time
in our society when many patients and physicians alike feel a rift in that
relationship in the wake of the many changes that have occurred in our health
care system and our society and our world in the past 15 years.
At their core, our illnesses clearly may be seen as reflections of an imbalance
in our relationships to ourselves and our total environment-- physical,
community, familial, societal, political, economic, etc. These are complex
relationships to be sure regardless of whether they involve our exposure
to a weather change or infectious agent ("bug") or reflect our succumbing
to the pressures of work, relationship or other life stress. Very often
we are unaware of this process of imbalance (in a large sense why we got
sick to begin with). The processes which lead to our falling ill may indeed
be very complex and require the intense analysis by both physician and patient
to reach their resolution.
Time is a vital element here. Some problems require only 10 or 20 minutes
to evaluate and treat (a simple cold or "flu"). Others may require more
time to explore (such as if that cold does not resolve). We take time for
the things we value. Health care is no exception. The time pressure of current
medical practice is a critical factor in the quality of care today. Many
patients have told me they do not feel "heard" or listened to by doctors
and feel "hurried" at visits. Doctors face great pressures in our changed
health care system, but must struggle to maintain proper communication so
vital to healing.
Another vital aspect of this relationship is the growth of complementary
and alternative and integrative healing arts over the past ten years. At
its core are the welcomed return to self-determination in health care, the
critical aspect of "self-healing", the mutual decision making between practitioner
and patient in determining treatment, the taking of responsibility for one's
own health and the reexploration of the multitudes of diverse healing methods
God endowed us with to do so. Alternative medicine gives us the great opportunity
to realize that none of us, physicians included, have all the answers and
that we are seekers of a more complete knowledge and wisdom which in part
is the result of collaboration.
These new opportunities and choices challenge doctor and patient alike to
change our views and reexplore ourselves and our health. Very often it is
the patient who must be patient with the doctor unfamiliar with these methods.
Doctors in kind must beto their patient's preferences and knowledge,
take them into serious consideration, explore them with the patient and
encourage mutual learning and decision making. This can be a huge leap for
the doctor who is very used to taking charge of the medical evaluation based
on his training in a specific field of learning largely obscure to the patient.
It may involve courage on the part of the doctor to suspend their medical
knowledge and belief systems, at least temporarily, to allow new information
to arise and be employed and on the part of the patient to be true to his
or her convictions and beliefs and patiently follow through with the doctor.
Of course, critical here is the willingness of doctors to listen, be curious
and learn. Patients teach their physicians too. Remember, it is a relationship!
Regardless of the actual treatment determined to be required, so vital itself
to relief or cure, it is the relationship of physician to patient that is
at the core of this process. Its tools, which go beyond the choice and use
of antibiotic, herb, acupuncture needle, xray or procedure, include thoughtful
two-way communication, careful listening, especially on the part of the
doctor, and the qualities of empathy, patience, flexibility, curiosity,
humbleness and willingness-- to my mind, the expressions and tools of love
itself, the ultimate healer.
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