{"id":35907,"date":"2025-01-17T19:13:48","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T13:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ferozepuronline.com\/?p=35907"},"modified":"2025-01-17T19:13:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T13:43:48","slug":"is-it-time-to-change-name-of-patient-to-impatient-in-medical-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ferozepuronline.com\/?p=35907","title":{"rendered":"IS IT TIME TO CHANGE NAME OF PATIENT TO (IM)PATIENT IN MEDICAL CARE ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

IS IT TIME TO CHANGE NAME OF PATIENT TO (IM)PATIENT<\/em><\/strong> IN MEDICAL CARE ?<\/u><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Patient is believed to have its origin from Middle English word\u00a0pacient<\/em>, from Anglo-French, from Latin\u00a0patient-, patiens<\/em>, from present participle of\u00a0pati<\/em>\u00a0to suffer; perhaps akin to Greek\u00a0p\u0113ma<\/em>\u00a0suffering. As per oxford dictionary, the word patient means one who has the potential of bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint or manifesting\u00a0forbearance<\/a>\u00a0under provocation or strain or not hasty or\u00a0impetuous<\/a> or steadfast despite opposition, difficulty, or adversity or one able to or willing to bear. And in medical care it means anyone who seeks medical consultation anywhere for routine care, checkup and evaluation or is admitted in the hospital for any treatment or diagnostic investigations.<\/p>\n

Now I will start with an example why I want the definition to be changed from patient to impatient<\/u><\/em><\/strong>. A day before I am writing this, I went to canteen at 2:45 pm for my lunch as I am a human and sustain on routine food as well. At 2:50 pm before even I had ordered my food, my OPD attendant called me to convey that \u00a0a patient had arrived in OPD. \u00a0I asked her to \u00a0record the \u00a0routine vitals and I conveyed her that I \u00a0would \u00a0come to examine the patient \u00a0in 10-15 minutes after taking my quick working lunch. \u00a0(Note that we have emergency next to the \u00a0OPD area only). She said (im)patient<\/u><\/em><\/strong> is shouting that he \u00a0is \u00a0there in \u00a0the OPD and nobody is there to see and attend to him [(im<\/u><\/em>)patient<\/u><\/em><\/strong>].<\/u><\/em> It is worth mentioning that it was hardly 3-4 minutes before \u00a0that he had entered the hospital premises. Anyway, I being a doctor, and a so called deemed to be a \u00a0noble professional, \u00a0without even \u00a0gulping \u00a0anything went back to see the (im)patient<\/u><\/em><\/strong> and it was a routine follow up (im patient)<\/u><\/em><\/strong> who had been \u00a0advised (2 months back) to see me back after 2 weeks & now instead of 2 weeks, he had \u00a0visited me after 2 months and was shouting that nobody was there to see him. After exchanging pleasantries and courtesy greetings they (impatient and attendants) complained, \u201c Dr., Why \u00a0don\u2019t you sit in your room \u00a0for the whole day?\u201d I don\u2019t know what I had to answer, but I told them \u00a0that I was a doctor as well a human both \u00a0and also had to visit other admitted (Im)patients<\/u><\/em><\/strong> in hospital or go to\u00a0 Canteen, Washroom etc for a few minutes at least \u00a0in a day. The patient was looked after and was facilitated with all help that he required. Thereafter, \u00a0he went back to his cozy room to probably visit me or any other professional again next time with the same impatience.<\/p>\n

However, this incident affected me and made me ponder, why do we call them patients<\/strong> even now and why not to revise it to impatient?<\/u><\/em><\/strong> To my mind, infact, \u00a0the hospital amd \u00a0all medical care staff should \u00a0be called patients in the real sense, \u00a0who patiently listen to \u00a0& handle these impatiens very patiently every time. We have often seen these days that any person (I shall call them instead of patients) who visits us in hospital from emergency to routine OPD is always impatient and expects that he or she should be attended before anyone else. \u00a0It is \u00a0obvious for anybody in emergency to be impatient, \u00a0it is fairly \u00a0genuine as well as \u00a0normal but as a routine visitor to hospital or any diagnostic center being impatient and even public display of this outburst of this it to others as well \u00a0and misbehaving with hospital staff or doctors is unacceptable. I \u00a0wonder how good or (im)patient<\/strong> friendly it is or is going to become \u00a0in future.<\/p>\n

Let me share, what worst can impatience bring in health care. Impatience is a major source of negative experience while waiting for health care. A set of studies establishes that an individual\u2019s distance from receiving care plays a role. During a survey, when participants were asked to envision a trip to the doctor, they were less patient after waiting nine minutes when they expected the wait to be 10 minutes than when they expected the wait to be 20 minutes. After waiting the same amount of time, people were less patient when they were closer to seeing the doctor. Similarly, in the context of a medical appointment, participants said they would be less patient waiting to check out compared with check in, and when waiting in an exam room for an appointment than waiting in the reception area. These scenarios suggest that the closer individuals believe they are to a completing a medical procedure, the less patient they become.<\/p>\n

Another experiment involved a hypothetical scenario about a treatment administered before an international trip, to boost immunity for a disease that could only be contracted while abroad. Participants were offered a painful shot or a painless pill, both of which would produce health benefits at the same time. Nevertheless, 68 percent of participants said they would choose the shot when they could get it over with sooner rather than the pill, whereas only 31 percent chose the pill when both treatments were available simultaneously.<\/p>\n

So I feel it\u2019s the time to change the nomenclature from patient to impatient<\/strong> in health care sector.<\/p>\n

Be impatient to make things better, to take action, to renew your efforts. Be patient in expecting tangible results. Remember, patience is a virtue!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr Hakim Irfan Showkat<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interventional Cardiologist<\/strong><\/p>\n

MD, FACC, FESC, FAPSIC<\/strong><\/p>\n

Docirfanshahi512@gmail.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

9990390305<\/strong><\/p>\n

Note: Views expressed are personal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IS IT TIME TO CHANGE NAME OF PATIENT TO (IM)PATIENT IN MEDICAL CARE ? Patient is believed to have its origin from Middle English word\u00a0pacient, from Anglo-French, from Latin\u00a0patient-, patiens, from present participle of\u00a0pati\u00a0to suffer; perhaps akin to Greek\u00a0p\u0113ma\u00a0suffering. As per oxford dictionary, the word patient means one who has the potential of bearing pains …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ferozepuronline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ferozepuronline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ferozepuronline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ferozepuronline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ferozepuronline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ferozepuronline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ferozepuronline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ferozepuronline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ferozepuronline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ferozepuronline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}