As in any other establishment, clinics and offices bring together different types of people, each with their way of being and their personality. When it comes to medicine, each person also has their way of relating: while some are more relaxed about diagnoses, others have the need to question everything at all times.
For your clinic to offer an increasingly personalized and humanized service, it is important to know the different types of people who may attend. Many patients have characteristics in common, and health professionals must know how to deal with each of them.
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Here on the blog, we have already commented on humanized care several times. Some of the characteristics of humanized care are: an individualized approach, passing on transparent information, and conveying trust and empathy. These characteristics are essential for your patients to feel welcomed, regardless of their profile. In this way, it is possible to affirm that it is essential to know better the different profiles that pass through your clinic or office because that makes it even easier to practice humanized care.
To help healthcare professionals on this journey, we list below some common types of patients in clinics and offices. Check out its features and how to deal with each of them.
Inattentive or distracted
Lack of attention and distraction can be characteristic of certain patients. This characteristic can be observed inside the doctor's office but may reflect on patient actions outside the clinic. Such actions can end up hindering even the patient's treatment, thus harming your health. Thus, it is essential to keep an eye on these details during the service, so that the health professional himself can help the patient in matters of this type.
More clearly, the inattentive patient is the one who has more difficulty understanding certain things, not out of stubbornness or anything like that, but because for him, everything needs to be explained as clearly as possible, otherwise, he can easily get distracted. In this sense, avoid using technical terms that are not understood by ordinary people and give way to more transparent information. This patient may also have the habit of arriving late for appointments or even forgetting about them, so even before he enters the service room, you can already have a basis for your behavior by checking your booking history. If you use medical software like Ninsaúde Apolo, this task becomes simpler.
Using a system for clinics, you will be able to send confirmations and reminders so that the patient does not forget about the appointment, and you can also send more detailed instructions on treatment and health tips. You will be able to program personalized messages via email marketing, that way the patient will always have the information they need in the palm of their hand.
The inattentive patient may also have difficulty understanding how to use certain medications, therefore, making prescriptions in the "older" way (in your hand, with the pen) can make things even more difficult, since the doctor's handwriting cannot always be easily understood by the patient. Therefore, choose to use medical software and make your prescriptions electronically. Specify in as much detail as possible how the treatment should be done and the best times of the day to do it. On some occasions, there may even be a patient with an Attention Deficit in your office, but they are isolated cases that should not be compared with a brief inattention.
Frail
Some people are more sensitive by nature. This type of patient, when seeking medical care, you are probably already fragile, because just thinking that there may be something wrong with your health is already a reason for despair. When faced with cases like this, it is first important to understand the reason for that fragility: Is there a family history linked to the patient's symptoms? Does the patient know someone close to him who has been through such a situation? Or is the patient experiencing other problems that have affected him or her in different fields? Finally, it is necessary to know what made the patient fragile at that time.
When realizing that the patient in question is going through difficult times, whatever the reason, the health professional must more than ever put humanized care into practice. Don't treat the patient's fears and anxieties as "freshness" or something silly, because it is not always possible to know the causes of their weaknesses. Humanized care is essential at all times, but remember that in some, it will make an even bigger difference.
When in the diagnosis it is revealed that in fact, the patient's health is at risk, his fragility only tends to increase, so if the professional has already noticed that there is a vulnerability in the first consultation, It is necessary to be very careful when disclosing certain diagnoses. Of course, hiding facts in an attempt to defuse the situation is not a good option, but measuring the words and explaining in detail everything necessary so that there are no doubts is paramount, not forgetting, of course, the humanization of care.
Insecure and defiant
When it comes to health, it is normal for people to be insecure about the treatment. However, some patients tend to show unusual insecurity, even being great contestants. This type of patient usually asks several questions, coming to create theories as if nothing would solve their situation, which includes making complaints about the price of the service, methods applied, and duration of treatment. We can call many of these patients not only insecure and contesting but also pessimistic.
Another characteristic of this type of patient is the fact that they question each of the stages of treatment. Depending on the situation, many still tend to resist medical recommendations, even acting with a certain stubbornness. But after all, what to do in such a situation? Being defensive can be a good option, but it is also necessary to have a firm grip so that the patient does not give up on treatment.
The solution to this is quite simple and has already been commented on here before: be clear when passing on information and use more objective language, so that the patient can easily understand the diagnosis and treatment. Another tip is to use examples of patients who have already obtained good results with this type of treatment. For medical ethics and data protection laws, you will not be able to name names or show data such as other people's records, but reporting an experience already lived in the office facilitates the patient's understanding. Also, the best way to beat a dissenting person is with good arguments, so be prepared to overcome any objections.
"Google knows-it-all"
You have certainly come across the patient "Google", who is that person who makes self-diagnosis only based on internet research. This person also tends to self-medicate, when the drug does not require a medical prescription. But when do you need it? That's where he looks for his office. Most of the time this person is also very contesting, implying that he knows more than the health professional himself.
Like the insecure patient, the "know-it-all" patient also needs good arguments to be defeated. Also, it is important to remind you that not everything that is on the internet is an absolute truth, and each patient has different needs, according to their organism. In many cases, there is also a need to perform exams so that the professional can give a more assertive diagnosis to the patient, so if necessary, use the correct arguments to show you not only the pros but also the cons of making decisions based on "guess".
It is important to remember that, although people have similarities in their personalities, every human being is unique, and there is no formula for dealing with them. Daily we live with several people and while some end up having quick passages in our socializing, regardless, it is always important to cultivate the gift of observation. Observe and analyze to always evolve.
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