Should you hug your patients?
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Should you hug your patients?
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Some considerable debate on Twitter this week about whether or not a doctor's should hug their patients. Working as a rheumatologist, where we tend to build up relationships with patients over many ye
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Forums » Open clinical » General clinical » Should you hug your patients?
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Should you hug your patients?
posted at 6/1/2012 4:25 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 4
First: 6/1/2012 Last: 16/1/2012 |
Some considerable debate on Twitter this week about whether or not a doctor's should hug their patients. Working as a rheumatologist, where we tend to build up relationships with patients over many years, I admit to occasionally letting my professional guard down. It is something that is usually initiated by a patient but I have, on occasion embraced a patient where I felt it appropriate. Although I appreciate that there is a risk that the gesture might be misintepreted, I think its sometimes the right thing to do. What do other doctor's think?
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Re: Should you hug your patients?
posted at 6/1/2012 5:06 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 632
First: 9/12/2011 Last: 21/5/2012 |
But of course, I applaud a Doctor compassionate enough to Hug their patients. The art of Therapeutic touch beckons here. I understand better than most that compassion has deep roots in healing. keep up the compassionate work Doc, it speaks volumes about your professional demeanor. DuaneF |
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Re: Should you hug your patients?
posted at 6/1/2012 9:39 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2075
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 18/5/2012 |
The occasional older woman gives me a hug when very pleased about my treatment but alas no very attractive young women. This is restricted to dreams. Never initiate a hug of a patient. You are on thin ice. I am aware of emotional boundaries and the Medical Board. Beware. Keep your hugging for your spouse, concubines, mistresses, cats and dogs. That is why we need a life outside medicine. Blokes in Oz don't usually hug one another or kiss each others' cheeks. We got this from the English. P.S. blokes here will jump on each other in sport eg after a try or a century. However they will not kiss. Only the Europeans do this. |
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Re: Should you hug your patients?
posted at 7/1/2012 1:50 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 37
First: 29/8/2010 Last: 18/5/2012 |
@Odysseus When were you last in England? Few heterosexual Englishmen seem to kiss one another on the cheek, though close buddies and family males are more likely to bear-hug now than they were 20 or 30 years ago, when the manly handshake was the norm. Jumping on each other in sport has also spread to rugby from soccer over the same length of time. Cheek-kissing among men has tended to be the preserve of some other European nations, eg French, and I have also observed it among some Middle-Eastern gentlemen of my acquaintance. Regarding hugging patients, I have occasionally hugged patients well-known to me who have lost babies, in sympathy. Not as a routine greeting as one would a good friend or relative, however. |
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Re: Should you hug your patients?
posted at 7/1/2012 2:28 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2075
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 18/5/2012 |
I was last in England on a Thursday, it be and we common folk from DownUnder we just curtsy those gentile English folk we do. Aye, a deep bow for English Gentlemen who sometimes gives un a shiny shilling and a deep curtsy for our womenfolk we do. By ya leave, Mam, we know our place we Antipodeans we do. And it is a long wet sail to Botany Bay it is. As for hugging patients, it is out of place for common folk like us to do such bold things. I good firm handshake be all right as long as I remove the splinters from me palm first and the odd rusty four inch hang nail. Bronze are hard to get now in this modern age. |
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Re: Should you hug your patients?
posted at 7/1/2012 6:37 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1325
First: 7/3/2009 Last: 21/5/2012 |
We are not robots but human beings. Use discretion and don't go on hugging everybody. But occasionaly it is a human gesture that is in place.Others mentioned a loss of baby, I will mention the loss of a family member(when you have to break the news especially), a diagnosis with bad prognosis, a shuttered patient in tears etc. Choose though carefully and don't initiate it. |
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Re: Should you hug your patients?
posted at 7/1/2012 6:53 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 279
First: 12/7/2010 Last: 19/4/2012 |
Cruising in Geriatrics at the moment and I must admit, that on some days it is a fight against myself (with all the energy I could extract from that unloved breakfast muffin) trying not to hug my elderly patients. They are just so sweet, adorable, delicate, interested and so cooperative (try having 6-8 medics auscultate you! I'd probably be irritated after no:4)! Not a real hugsy person but by gosh, the urge to go there (especially for those patients who have been abandoned by their own grown up kids and they miss them -sometimes think we are them even!-, or the chronically familiar and bed ridden) is really overwhelming! So what do I actually do? I just translate my feelings in other ways that are more medical than emotional. But I think I'll ask the next (where culturally appropriate) patient who makes me want to give them a hug: "You are so kind and helpful! We learnt a lot! You made our day....can I give you a hug?" + big beaming smile from ear to ear = you can't say no to that! |
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Re: Should you hug your patients?
posted at 7/1/2012 9:16 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2075
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 18/5/2012 |
K.K. I agree with you. Everyone has his own style. I find that sitting by the bedside and holding an old person's hand works but only when the moment is right. I find a wink can make an old woman feel young again. It can say a thousand words. There is a temptation to think an old person is somehow a different life form from the original. As I have aged I have changed but I still feel as young in myself as when I was twenty. I sailed my wooden dinghy (Cape Cod catboat) on a dam near here yesterday and was as happy as a kitten with a ball of string. Old people are young 'uns in old chassis. |
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Re: Should you hug your patients?
posted at 9/1/2012 6:22 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2
First: 9/1/2012 Last: 16/2/2012 |
According to the situation I hug patients.I came across this report today - http://www.fastmr.com/prod/277565_sirius_genomics_inc_product_pipeline_analysis.aspx. I'm not familiar the publisher, but it looks pretty focused. Anybody here know the company? |
Forums » Open clinical » General clinical » Should you hug your patients?
