The doctor's journey
How do doctors cope with the responsibilities and challenges that come with medical care?
When it comes to the journey followed in the medical world we focus a lot on the patient. Which is great and continues to provide innovative methods of treatment. However, we still remain with the other side of the coin. How do medical staff cope with the difficulties that arise from dealing with people concerning intimate topics such as health? In this article, I am going to start off with the doctor’s journey.?
Key Points
-? ? ? ? ? Becoming a doctor
-? ? ? ? ? What are the common challenges for doctors?
-? ? ? ? ? How do doctors deal with patient diagnosis and treatment?
-? ? ? ? ? What is the impact of digital services on doctors?
-? ? ? ? ? What to take away
Becoming a doctor
Becoming a doctor is a rigorous process that can be tough to deal with in emotional and physical ways. The studies required can really push one’s limits. Every country has slightly different requirements, however, all of them have up to 11 years of study and residency. Let’s take Switzerland as an example. Switzerland has some of the highest standards when it comes to medical education. There are few spots available and it is only the most accomplished that make it into the programs. Should you get a place to study medicine, you will spend the next 6 years studying between your bachelor's and master's. Eventually, be able to do your residency and apply for a medical licence.
All that is just getting to practice medicine. Once your academic studies are done and people are calling you a doctor professionally there is still the matter of earning the title. It is one of those careers that demands practice to be consistently proficient. In this light, you can see that the studies of a doctor do not ever truly end and that once in the game they need to pursue a current understanding of diseases, procedures, and so on.
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?What are the common challenges for doctors?
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Perhaps the most obvious and least spoken about is the fact that many doctors have to manage the health of their patients which is interlinked with life and death situations. Their decisions can drastically alter someone’s life or they may not be able to stop the progression of the disease or damage from an injury. Leading to a death of a patient or permanent alteration to function. The challenges for doctors are concerned with balance. How to remain compassionate but not affected by the patient’s situation.?
When we are in school, doctors are portrayed as these amazing heroes that save the lives of other people. They are shining examples of what we see as being the ideal person. Someone with compassion and the skills/talent to save lives. In fact, in most schooling situations you will find that being a doctor is one of the first professions you learn about. From there it is up to you to pursue being a doctor. As mentioned above, the studies involved are intense and take a great deal of commitment. During this time it is often implied, if not taught, that engaging with emotional responses from dealing with a patient should be ignored entirely. Otherwise, you could jeopardise yourself.?
Current findings, however, show that using healthy coping mechanisms is a far better way of dealing with such emotional stress. It can be extremely emotionally demanding to deal with a patient’s situation. Suppressing the emotions has been found to lead to less healthy ways of coping, such as:
Over time you may find that the doctor will seem less compassionate and become distant from patients and families. In the end, the doctor may have years of trauma just sitting on the mind of this doctor like a heavy boulder. So when we talk about the challenges doctors face, we are not just talking about the administrative side or the ability to think on one’s feet while having enough academic inclination to stay up to date. We are talking about this strenuous emotional aspect that has only recently been acknowledged. In recognising the need for doctors to manage the emotional side of the job we have seen that many have been coping with depression and other issues with inadequacy and anxiety.?
While also taking on the responsibility of managing the patient’s and family’s expectation for prognosis or assistance through the final stages. We, as the patients and families, look to the doctors feeling as though they should have all the answers. Waiting in anticipation for the perfect solution and somehow forgetting that they too are just human. They too are doing their best to get the best results possible. Ultimately it can be said, I believe, that doctors have the challenge of caring for the health of people and their own mental health every single day. And each day this is tested with a new obstacle, a new arena of issues to conquer.?
The challenges are serious and can have permanent consequences for both the patient and the doctor. We discussed mental health and the importance of digitisation in a previous article, I think it touches on a few good points that are relevant for doctors in terms of management. See more here: Mental health digital patient journey.
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How do doctors deal with patient diagnosis and treatment??
Every doctor has a different approach. It is hard to say what a specific way would be, especially since each country has its own regulations. No matter what though, it is a process that is generally not the easiest.?
Diagnosing something like the flu or a cold is not such a big problem and so delivering this type of diagnosis is really no deal. A more serious diagnosis can be difficult to deliver as you are giving life-altering news in many cases. Doctors need to be prepared to take on the heavy shower of emotions the patient is about to experience.? As we discussed in the previous section, this is the main challenge for the doctor. The doctor’s journey is one that is uncertain and requires emotional strength and physical stamina. Two things that rarely go hand in hand.
How do doctors deal with the diagnosis journey and manage ongoing treatment? Well from my own experiences it is clear to me that each doctor has a unique way of communicating and managing each patient’s situation. In some cases, the doctor may find that they are not quite ready to hear everything at once, and in other cases, you may find patients ready to take it on head first from day 1. Each circumstance is different and requires its own set of skills and knowledge.?
The answer to this question is the same as the challenges doctors face. There is little support in terms of preparing doctors for these inevitable challenges which has created a system where each individual doctor copes in their own way. Healthy personal coping mechanisms are good but a proper structure that functions as support through it is necessary to get prepared and to lean on when needed. I believe this is an area where digitisation can help doctors cope better and in healthier ways, not just for patient health.
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?What is the impact of digital services on doctors?
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Will doctors come to favour digital services?
Digital services for healthcare providers have been around for some years but are still in their infancy in reality. For some doctors, this means that it might still be a little risky to try and keep everything digitally. Others have seen the potential and where it is taking us.?
The latest innovations in use offer digital prescriptions, better communication, and better monitoring. This is done through electronic devices, smart devices, and apps. Doctors have the best infrastructure to be able to monitor their patients and record details in a digital patient file. Providing greater administrative support to doctors and limiting potential errors like misreading something handwritten. These functional improvements have laid down the groundwork for doctors to work more efficiently which in itself alleviates much of the stress.?
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Now that there is a surge in medical digitisation we have seen more focus on doctors and interdisciplinary communication. The future of digital services not only gets patients to be able to see doctors all over the country or the world at much less cost, it gives doctors an opportunity to open communication with each other. Leading to more interdisciplinary involvement in a patient’s diagnosis. These products also focus on doctors helping doctors so that they may communicate with each other in times of difficulty with stressful situations. Opening up the dialogue for the healthcare profession to get the assistance they need in order to manage their emotional responses. Ultimately giving the patient the care they need without sacrificing the self. I think that in the next few years more and more doctors will adopt the digital approach for reasons such as professional development, self-care in the workplace, and improving the patient-to-doctor relationship.
What to take away
We should acknowledge that the doctor’s journey is just as important as the patient’s. They are two paths that overlap and rely on each other in many ways to continue forward and stay well maintained. With every year that goes by we are able to see the importance of emotional care and how this in conjunction with healthy diets and being reasonably fit leads to a well-balanced person that has the stamina and emotional strength to deal with harsh situations.
We cannot prepare for everything but we can have a support structure in place ready to hold up the individual, the doctor, that needs a helping hand. Knowing that such an institution existed may have helped many doctors who could no longer take the stress and trauma that comes with treating medical conditions. The doctor’s journey is a noble one and one most of us rely on but it is also a tough one. Both the doctor and the patient have incredible obstacles to overcome through the diagnosis and treatment process. Working together we can improve systems to have improved communication, education, and monitoring.
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How can you make a difference?
Become part of the change, become an e-health pioneer striving to reshape the future of health journeys. Each one of us plays a role in designing and implementing health systems. It Is the relentless effort put into making a difference for everyone affected by mental health problems and lessening the chances of individuals threatening their own lives or being life-threatening to others. With these tools, we can improve overall communication between medical staff as well as patient-to-medical staff. Reducing miscommunication and getting better information to the public to limit late diagnosis.?
Do you want to be a part of that change?
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Author Notes:?
My name is Damien and I am inquisitive, curious and many times stupefied, about all that tech has to offer the world. Most recently around the areas of AI, ML, and UX/CX? in e-Health and DIgital Health Journeys. All of my views expressed here are those of my own and do not represent the views of the ZurRose Group. Follow me on a journey through e-Health and tech in the healthcare industry.
Sources
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333466694_Phases_of_the_Diagnostic_Journey_A_Framework