Empathy and compassion needed in houseman equation

EVER wondered why a medical student, after six to seven years of arduous, relentless study to graduate as a duly qualified doctor, would choose to throw away the degree soon after to seek less green pastures?

Medical schools teach the anatomy and physiology of a person and later build up on pathology on what goes awry. Lecturers impart medical knowledge by sharing real-life experiences in practice and how they overcome the problems.

Whether the medical student is taught the appropriate attitudes and values when interacting with patients depends largely on his mentors in the medical college he graduated from.

Kindness and compassion should be synonymous with the medical field, as they form the foundation of good medical practice. Research has shown that compassionate care is likely to lead to better patient outcomes and compliance to treatment regimes. Even greater, compassion and empathy must be shown towards chronically ill patients like the cancer stricken.

Also, how doctors communicate with one another and their patients is also crucial in influencing patient outcomes, as well as work relationships and the culture of the hospital.

Junior doctors tend to be a little mechanical in their approach to patients. Their questions to patients seem to be terse and pointed, for example: “Why did you come to the hospital?” or “why the heck did you not come sooner?”

Although these questions are pertinent, the way they are put forth make the deliverer appear cold and callous.

The doctor must realise that the patient, when presenting himself at the clinic, is already in a state of apprehension with a fear of the unknown.

A tactless and abrupt approach by the doctor complicates the situation and at times terrifies the disenchanted patient.

Housemen doctors are overworked with scarce family life and are underpaid.

With this background they are sometimes shouted at by their irate bosses and have had patients’ files thrown at them.

Whatever they do appears to be simply not good enough. And all this in front of the patients.

Surely such acts would demoralise the juniors and throw them off balance even to the extent of suicide.

The bosses must realise that these doctors are just human, beginning their careers facing stressful, heavily patient loaded settings with little or no sleep.

I have asked some lawyers and other professionals whether they have had any of their chambering students or apprentices commit suicide, only to be met with bewildered looks.

It appears that only medical housemen are the victims. Surveys show that levels of psychological distress are nearly twice for doctors than those reported for the general population.

So the question arises as to how we address these issues effectively? When a patient dies unexpectedly there is an inquiry, reports have to be submitted and a debrief done to ensure that the incident does not repeat. But when a houseman commits suicide, where is the inquiry?

Medical schools are currently geared to produce hi-tech medical graduates without emotional development. It is suggested that the subject of “emotional development” be incorporated into the medical syllabus to cultivate well rounded model medical behaviour of empathy and compassion and the art of establishing rapport with patients and bosses alike.

A transparent and collaborative approach where the junior doctors feel safe and confident when asking for help must be put in place. Housemen deserve better than what is being dished out to them now. We must eliminate the cancer that has been plaguing the system for too long.

DR A SOORIAN Seremban