check your assumptions at the door

 

 



The same illness can be understood in different ways by different people. Nowhere is this more troubling than in the doctor’s office. The unspoken biopsychosocial elements that distinguish the physician from the patient pose a real obstacle to effective communication.

“I know that you believe

you understand what you think I said,

But I am not sure you realize

that what you heard

is not what I meant.”

~Robert McCloskey~

 

The physician may see illness as a puzzle to solve, or a challenge to overcome. He understands the problem in technical terms. He can describe how the anatomy and physiology have gone haywire, recite the tests that need to be done to prove it, and rattle off the latest peer-reviewed protocols for treatment. He may be doing a bang-up job of caring for his patient, so it confuses him when his patient doesn’t respond.

On the other hand, depending on his beliefs, the patient may see his illness as a punishment, a failure on his part, or a random manifestation of universal injustice. His clinical course can be aggravated by guilt. He tells himself he should have quit smoking sooner, or watched his diet more carefully, or kept up his exercise program. But because now he has a spot on his lung, or a stent in his heart, he thinks it’s too late. Why start now, he wonders.

Illness can also be complicated by grief, as in the case of a woman who relives her mother’s losing battle with breast cancer when she discovers the lump in her own breast. She may be skeptical about her treatment options, or reluctant to begin therapy, having watched her mother suffer to no avail.

Some people cling to the belief that prayer is the answer, even when it doesn’t work for them.

Patients make certain assumptions about the nature and course of disease based on observation, experience, belief, hope, and expectation that can affect their motivation, and even their ability to heal.

“Check your assumptions.

In fact, check your assumptions at the door."

~Lois McMaster Bujold~

The physician is unlikely to take these factors into account unless he anticipates them and asks about them. The patient is unlikely to bring them up on his own out of shame, or guilt, or grief, or fear unless he is invited and encouraged to share them.

Doctor/patient communication is difficult enough without the specter of false assumptions. They are, nevertheless, a clue to the patient’s history. They are an important a piece of his narrative.

“Nobody cares how much you know

 

until they know how much you care.”

~Theodore Roosevelt~

jan