Patient Education: A Physician's Duty

It is a fact that most patients do not know what exactly the root cause of a common cold is. The technicalities in this common but infectious viral disease alone are more than we could ever imagine. However, it is the duty of the physician to explain to the patients and thereby educate them about their ailments. It is important for the patient to understand the technicalities of the surgery that he has to undergo.

It is difficult for a patient to understand what exactly might be the root cause of his problems. However, it is the doctor's job to know about the various ailments and their respective treatments. When we talk about patient education, it means informing/educating the patients of their medical ailments and medications, assuring them of their safety, using language that patients would understand, helping them understand the healthcare costs, etc. These factors are explained below in brief:

1. Use simple language: More than 80 million people have difficulty understanding the medical language and other health related terminology and information that hospitals use. The result is higher rates of hospitalization. This is usually because patients, who are unaware of the common, household treatments for a common cold or a cough, rush to hospitals and the more shocking fact is that they make rush to the hospital's ER, hoping to be treated there for such small ailments, unless they are experiencing symptoms of a major disease. In this respect, patients should be educated when they come to the hospital for the very first time itself. Proper hospital maps on each hospital floor should state the directions in clear language, specifying the department name. Also, when trying to make the patient understand medical language, professionals need to explain the various terms in a way that is easy and effective.

2. Healthcare costs: Talking to your patients will let you know about their financial condition. If your patient suffers from a disease like asthma and you realize that he doesn't have any source of fixed income, you cannot expect him to adhere to the prescriptions that you have been writing for him. Once you learn of this, you can prescribe drugs for your patient that are of generic nature, rather than the ones that are more costly. In the event of discharging a patient from the hospital, it becomes quite confusing for them to understand the costs of the treatment and that of the hospital services. If the patient were insured, this problem would never arise. If he is not, it is time to sit down with him and discuss payment options and the insurance facilities provided by the hospital.

3. Recognizing symptoms: This is very important for the patient, since the symptoms help him to get the general idea of his ailment. Symptoms like numbness of the left arm and unusual sweating is a direct symptom of a heart attack. The medical system is advancing everyday due to the introduction of breakthrough technology in surgery and diagnosis. It is the priority of the doctor to educate his patient relating to his condition, to make the patient's hospital experience better.

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