Art of Practicing Medicine - Ask a Doctor

Kerry - How much drinks is too much? How do I find whether I am addicted? Can I drink in divided doses daily or a weekend drinking can cause more damage to the health?

Doctor - Occasional excessive drinking can certainly damage your liver.... and so on goes the conversation until the doctor permits you to have your share of drinks.
Thus Kerry advises you to share the same opinion as his and doesn't mind paying for one.

Yes, a doctor is considered next to God. A patient approaching a doctor with such a feeling makes the doctor feel the luckiest. Then the doctor doesn't need much effort to actually treat him. Faith has done more than 50% of the job.

In fact the role of a doctor is indeed more human, human in the sense – he needs to be sensitive in addition to using his common sense, do justice to patient while being just to himself, care for proper diagnosis of the patient as he would expect for any other close individuals, and most importantly know his limits of treating and earning. Such an effective balance should be applied in difficult cases where the possibility of misdiagnosing is more.

Of course with the confidence, maturity and experience that doctor gains through years of training can give him the liberty to market himself and utilize his precious time intelligently. This could be at the cost of patient satisfaction if he is sure that someone else or the medicines itself would take care of the counseling. A common case like viral fever or common cold definitely doesn’t need more than a few calories from the doctor and medications are more than enough to take care of.

Psychiatry is an important aspect of practicing medicine – " it’s an art to extract money from already pained souls". What makes the doctor’s job noble is the very fact that they deal with suffering and help bring a smile back on patient’s faces in spite their heavy charges (duties) paid. Some events put doctors in real bad situation where a financially sound patient fools around with reasons for not paying. Hence strict self-valuation on the doctor's part (in monetary terms) and can be relieved in some exceptional cases. Here lays the extra skill set required by the doctor that he has to diagnose both the illness as well as the standard of living of the patient – if he would want to decently survive in the society.

A doctor’s job can become real challenging at times with already varieties of people in this funny universe and just imagine their diverse colors when they are at the worst of their illnesses. Thanks to the self declared (OTC) doctors who dispense drugs over-the-counter before redirecting them to the certified doctors.

Some patients can be real tough and teach you the life’s lesson in just few minutes of visit and don’t expect an extra word from you except treatment. Some can be an equal nuisance repeating over an over about the same symptoms and impatiently demanding assurance of a lifetime in just one visit – waiting for you to accept that you can’t smile all the time, prove that you can lose your temper easily, and make you feel small about your so-called proud journey (medical).

Doctors need to be stable, wearing a welcome smile (with hidden emotions of happiness that at last some influxes) and dynamism to handle the disease and situation. A loose word here and there and you lose – you need to behave like an almighty and be ready for the instant quiz being thrown at you. A minute’s delay and your certificate’s can’t save you.

A patient who approaches you needs not only medicines or counseling but also moral support which he wouldn’t always get from the family. The relatives of course have to be the constant source of courage but it’s the status of a doctor that adds real meaning to the counseling. Assurance and a little bit of medical education about the disease the patient is suffering are very essential these days with the general awareness of health and illnesses increasing. It’s a good sign of consumer rights as well as it keeps the doctor’s constantly on the toes.

Of course humor is also important to make the patient healthy, as the doctor lamenting along with the patient would not create a possible positive effect on his illness. A distance needs to be maintained amongst the two entities to bring out the best out of both - too much familiarity and too much of involvement on the doctor’s part can be harmful to both and mainly the profession. Hat’s off to the management skills of the doctor and Great is the consumer - the patient who compels the doctor to grow versatile and keep in a state of constant up gradation.