by Olivia Bredbenner

Created on: September 22, 2008

I have worked with many doctors in my profession. I would be failing miserably if I did not write for the trusted side of this debate. Most doctors that I have known have demonstrated that they in the practice of their profession are trustworthy and that they can be fully trusted. On those rare occasions where a doctor did not live up to the standards of practice and failed peer review evaluations after a complaint had been filed. Have most often just quietly disappeared from the scene.

Before you decide that I am too involved to be objective, I ask you to read on. All who work in health care are also in the system that provides care to one another and as well as our families. Imperfections in the system are very real to all of us. If the doctor says what we want to hear we are happy. If not we seek another opinion and this I highly recommend.

What is necessary for the public to understand is that your doctor is most often an objective caregiver and has no emotional involvement with you or your family. Therefore, his detachment from you and all the many other people he is caring for, can sometimes be interpreted as indifference to you and your problems. His or her clinical detachment does not mean he or she does not care, but it is necessary to maintain objectivity in the role as your doctor. Be sure you are viewing things from the right perspective.

I have met physicians that are very competent in their practice but fall short in the area of communication skills. If they have competent staff around them, they can help fill in that area. In addition, there have been some doctors that lacked good bedside manners. However, they excelled in their diagnostic or in their surgical abilities. Be sure you do not want your doctor to be the friendly salesman with the good jokes. But someone who's focus is on you and your return to good health.

I have found that often the doctor is having feelings about trust just as you are. With questions such as. Will this patient follow my advice? Does this patient have secondary gains in mind with this illness? Or if all the tests are negative, has this complaint of pain been related to drug seeking behaviors? All this can come to mind as the search for causes and the comforting measures continue.

The demands within the health care system and the risks inherent in its practice. Have caused many physicians to practice defensively with threats of lawsuits that hang over their heads daily. It has caused many good physicians to give up

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