Call me paternalistic, but the people in the bed (or on the trolley) that I am charged with looking after are my patients.
They are are not, as far as I am concerned, “clients” or “consumers”. To me, these labels are pissy PC labels that unknown wankers have decided are more appropriate; designed to give patients a sense of control in what is otherwise an alienating system. By labeling patients in such ways, it gives the sense that they are somehow customers who have the ability to pick and choose the type of care and the place that they recieve it. It gives the sense that such “consumers” are empowered to make the sorts of decisions about their health akin to those made when going out and making a consumer purchase like a TV or lounge suite.
Now granted, in the Australian context, if you’ve got private health cover you have the ability to choose your doctor. But really, unless you really know anything about the doctor you choose, and about the implications of choosing them over another doc, this really doesn’t mean much.
Then, I begin to wonder. Should we treat our patients as consumers? Check their credit before dispatching an ambulance, as in the novel Jennifer Government?
I’ve looked after a lot of lovely people. But given the number of complete tards that I have nursed, I can assure you that “the customer is always right” does not cut the mustard with me.
I guess my biggest objection to such terminology is the idea that such labels mean that patients are somehow falsely empowered with the notion that they truly have choice and control over their “health transaction”. The drunk guy with the sub-dural that comes through the doors is incapable of exercising his consumer power – he needs to be cared for. Little Esme who has tripped over in the garden and done her NOF isn’t in hospital to shop for a new hip, followed by a coffee and boob job. She is there to receive medical attention and be cared for. I look at the patients that come into ICU and do not see a single one who is there out of choice, or who is capable of shopping for a treatment in their size & colour.
When I look after someone, they are my patient.
When I am sick, I would rather be someone’s patient, than their customer, consumer, or client.
And as if these terms didn’t irritate me enough, now there appears to be “guest”. WTF? That’s right. I came across this one recently in a journal article:
Reishtein, J. (2005) ‘Sleep in Mechanically Ventilated Patients’, Critical Care Clinics of North America, vol.17, pp251-255.
Hospitals are infamous as places where people cannot sleep, and critical care units seem to be the worst offenders in denying thier guests rest and sleep.
I don’t want to be looked after by a doctor or nurse that thinks of me as a “guest”.
I wonder whether the doorman, concierge, or manager at the next hotel/motel/resort that you stay at will have as much concern/responsibility for the the health & welfare of you, as their guest, that a doctor or nurse has for their patients.
Somehow, I think not…
