Michael Stein writes about the expectation of kindness when you visit the doctor:
It’s reasonable to expect a doctor to be kind at every visit….Today, medical schools teach and evaluate kindness at patients’ bedsides and through role-playing….Yet doctors and patients alike have lamented that fully booked appointment schedules, the laptop’s intrusion during history-taking, billing pressures and edicts from insurance companies are squeezing kindness out of the exam room.
Personally, I don’t care. Sure, I’d prefer that my doctor not be an asshole, but most of them pass that test. My hobby horse is different: I want them to tell the simple truth. Period.
I always feel like telling them this: “You know how you talk when you’re consulting with another doctor? Neither kind nor unkind. Just a simple, unemotional dialogue that’s concerned solely with the facts of the case. That’s what I want.”
And a pony. As near as I can tell, I have about as good a chance of getting either one.
POSTSCRIPT: Not that I really blame them. Every patient wants something a little different in the bedside manner department. How are doctors supposed to know? And even if they do, can they really be expected to turn different personalities off and on for each appointment?
