Some time ago I received a hospital appointment that I wasn’t expecting. I’d seen the consultant only a few weeks previously, so I phoned to inquire why I was being invited back. I discovered that it was for a review clinic, run by a specialist nurse. I was rather pleased and delayed a planned break to attend.
In my experience both as a health professional and as a patient, clinics run by nurses are good news. Nurses tend to be more systematic in their clinical reviews, often seem more attentive than doctors, and are more inclined to learn from patients and …
For several years I worked in an educational department called a performance unit. We supported doctors who were perceived to have performance problems, which sometimes showed itself as rudeness to patients or colleagues. Many of those referred to us had health, domestic, financial, or other problems that had triggered this behaviour or amplified it. We tried to help them deal with such problems, while recognising that these didn’t excuse the harm and upset they caused to others. When we tackled them on their manner or behaviour and suggested that they improve these they sometimes asked, “Are you telling me I’m meant to put on a …
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Seven years ago, a consultant cardiologist stood at the end of my hospital bed with five or six people he never introduced, and he told me I had severe heart failure. Seven years on, I’ve just finished circumnavigating the whole of Wales on foot. I did it in around 80 stages, a total of around 1000 miles across some of the most rugged coastal and hill terrain in Britain.
I tell my story in this way for several reasons. Firstly, I want to remind everyone that doctors still break bad news to patients in the crassest ways, without either privacy …
I spend quite a lot of my time teaching about narratives in medicine. By narratives I mean stories, although both words can be confusing. The word “story” makes some people think of fairy tales or fiction, while a “narrative” can sound like something long and literary. In fact, either term can potentially mean a statement as short as “I’ve got a bunion” or as long as a life story. I prefer the word “narrative” mainly because it carries more of a sense of flow. (You can turn it into a verb: she is narrating, he narrated, and so forth.)
Many teachers of …