Medical etiquette

It is intriguing that many bright medical students who have scored high marks in college do not turn up into becoming successful and popular doctors.

Delivering gratifying medical care involves not just knowledge, skills and ethics but two other vital components that are often overlooked: empathy and medical etiquette.

Medical etiquette is simply good proper behaviour that is expected of physicians and nurses when dealing with patients. Simple, etiquette is usually not given much importance during medical training in this country and is hence often found woefully lacking in our professionals. Consequently, do not be surprised to meet a topnotched specialist with a string of degrees below his name, who may forget the etiquette of offering you a seat when you enter his chamber, and continue talking on the phone.

A resident doctor, who comes to train with us to become a super specialist, is often grossly deficient in etiquette. In the busy and crowded OPD, I see him often examining a female patient in the presence of 10 unrelated spectators. In the ward, I see him doing an ascitic tap (drawing fluid from the abdomen) without putting screens around to ensure privacy. Another common gaffe is barging into the private cabin of a patient without an announcing knock or a “please may I come in?”.

While etiquette may not decide life and death, what it does decide is whether the patient feels comfortable,* cared for and treated with dignity. It also determines whether he would like to come back and be regular with follow up, ,or go to another doctor.

Doctor’s etiquette requires that he is punctual, is dressed appropriately and is well mannered with his patients; a medical doctor imbibes it party from the environment at home and his culture, from the grooming he has received from his teachers, and from his emotional intelligence.

Medical training in many countries has focussed too strongly on information gathering, subject knowledge, and skills, while neglecting the three vital “human” aspects : communication, empathy and etiquette from the curriculum. It is hardly surprising then that many patients are dissatisfied with their caregivers,