{"id":1024,"date":"2019-09-09T15:07:28","date_gmt":"2019-09-09T15:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/?p=1024"},"modified":"2019-09-09T15:07:28","modified_gmt":"2019-09-09T15:07:28","slug":"who-cares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/who-cares\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO CARES?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"273\" height=\"185\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/download-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1032\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>What makes for an ideal doctor? Patients\nshared their views in a study which appeared in an issue of <em>Mayo Clinic\nProceedings<\/em>. It&#8217;s based on nearly 200 patients treated at the Mayo Clinic\nin Arizona and Minnesota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In phone interviews with people who had\nno professional ties with the Mayo Clinic, the patients described their best\nand worst experiences with their Mayo Clinic doctors, with confidentiality\nguaranteed. The doctors seen by the patients came from 14 medical specialties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are the seven traits listed by the\npatients, along with the patients&#8217; definitions of those traits:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Confident: &#8220;The doctor&#8217;s confidence gives me\n     confidence.&#8221; <\/li><li>Empathetic: &#8220;The doctor tries to understand what\n     I am feeling and experiencing, physically and emotionally, and\n     communicates that understanding to me.&#8221; <\/li><li>Humane: &#8220;The doctor is caring, compassionate, and\n     kind.&#8221; <\/li><li>Personal: &#8220;The doctor is interested in me more\n     than just as a patient, interacts with me, and remembers me as an individual.&#8221;\n     <\/li><li>Forthright: &#8220;The doctor tells me what I need to\n     know in plain language and in a forthright manner.&#8221; <\/li><li>Respectful: &#8220;The doctor takes my input seriously\n     and works with me.&#8221; <\/li><li>Thorough: &#8220;The doctor is conscientious and\n     persistent.&#8221;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>That list isn&#8217;t in any particular order.\nThe researchers didn&#8217;t check whether confidence was more important to patients\nthan respectful treatment, for instance. The Mayo Foundation funded the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The traits covered doctor\u2019s behavior,\nnot technical know-how. That finding &#8220;does not suggest that technical\nskills are less important than personal skills, but it does suggest that the former\nare more difficult for patients to judge,&#8221; the researchers write. They add\nthat patients may tend to assume that doctors are competent unless they see\nsigns of incompetence, the researchers add.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One patient put it this way in the\nstudy: &#8220;We want doctors who can empathize and understand our needs as a\nwhole person. We want to feel that our doctors have incredible knowledge in\ntheir field. But every doctor needs to know how to apply their knowledge with\nwisdom and relate to us as plain folks who are capable of understanding our\ndisease and treatment.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The opposite of those seven traits would\nbe: timid, uncaring, misleading, cold, callous, disrespectful, and hurried. Can\nhealthcare ever be high-quality if the patient-doctor interaction is any of\nthese? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hear so many deeply touching stories\nfrom patients who have had such positive experiences with doctors and nurses\nduring tough medical situations. People who are cared for in this way receive\nmuch more than physical wellness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. St. Clair maintains\na private dental practice in Rowley and Newburyport dedicated to health-centered\nfamily dentistry. If there are certain topics you would like to see written about\nor questions you have please email them to him at <a href=\"mailto:jpstclair@stclairdmd.com\">jpstclair@stclairdmd.com<\/a>.\nYou can view all previously written columns at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\">www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What makes for an ideal doctor? Patients shared their views in a study which appeared in an issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. It&#8217;s based on nearly 200 patients treated at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona and Minnesota. In phone interviews with people who had no professional ties with the Mayo Clinic, the patients described their best and worst experiences with their Mayo Clinic doctors, with confidentiality guaranteed. The doctors seen by the patients came from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1024"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1033,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024\/revisions\/1033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}