Doctor-Patient Relationship
An area of Medical Sociology is doctor-patient relationship. In this relationship complex social factors are implicated. The patient comes unbidden to a doctor and enters voluntarily into a contract in which he agrees to follow the doctor’s advice.
By virtue of his technical superiority, knowledge and skill the doctor exercises an authoritative role and issue orders to his patients. Some individuals may not be prepared to invest the doctor with full authority; this may lead to a conflict between the doctor and patient. Except technical competence the doctor must know how to communicate with his patient.
A successful doctor is one who knows how to communicate with his patients. In this regard three levels of communication have been described:-
- Communication on an Emotional Plane:
The doctor must give a sympathetic ear to the complaints made by the patient and his relatives. This is necessary to establish a quick report. The reason why folk medicine successful is because the patient and his relatives feel they can talk more freely a folk medicine practitioner than the modern physician. The interpersonal relationships between villagers and modern medicine practitioners are more different than folk practitioners.
- Communication on Cultural Plane:
Secondly, the doctor should be aware of the general concepts of culture and social organization of the community with which he is dealing. This helps to acquire certain “flexibility” in his dealings with patients. The reason why the indigenous and folk system of medicine are successful in rural areas is because they are part of the total way of life of the folk treatment is based on charity or in kinds. Medicines are prepared from ordinary plants common to the region.
- Communication on an Intellectual Plane:
Practitioners from modern medicine come from well-to-do families. By their education and training they tend to be sophisticated. This leaves a wide gap between the intellectual level of the practitioner of modern medicine and the illiterate masses. There is also a social distance between these two groups. A successful doctor is one who reduces this distance and is able to communicate with his patient freely and to win patients’ confidence.
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