The Doctor- Reflection Paper

Patient interactions and the clinician-patient relationship are themes that run throughout “The Doctor”. This film highlights several examples of how patients are treated within a hospital setting, how clinicians treat their parents, and how this relationship can affect the patient’s emotions and their trust in their provider. The clinician-patient relationship heavily impacts the patient’s overall health outcome and this film sheds a light on the significance of building that relationship between provider and patient.

            “The Doctor” provides several examples of what a patient’s experience is like within the hospital setting and how it can affect their emotional state. For example, patients may feel uninformed about their care or their condition. We see this when Dr. Reed failed to inform Dr. McKee that his tumor had grown. Instead, he told Dr. McKee that the tumor didn’t shrink in size as he suspected. It was only after Dr. Abott told Dr. McKee that she suspected that he knew about the growth of his tumor, that he was made aware of what had actually happened. This situation can be extremely upsetting to the patient as he or she may have not been able to fully comprehend their own disease or condition, and what that means for their quality of life. Patients have the right to know what their diagnosis entails, as well as to any clarifications that may be needed for them to fully understand their condition. Misinforming a patient, or allowing the patient to be ignorant to what he or she is experiencing, inhibits their autonomy and decreases the quality of care provided to them.

            Another example the film brings up about the patient experience, is the constant lengthy waiting times and repetitive paper work that the patient has to endure. Time and time again, we see Dr. McKee feeling frustrated over how long he has to wait in the waiting room, when he has such a busy schedule. He also becomes frustrated over how many times he has to fill out the same paper work, as it seems it cannot be distributed to other departments within the same hospital. Every time he shows his frustration, he is disregarded by the hospital staff. This process can be discouraging to any patient, as it feels like their time and energy are not valued. Just like Dr. McKee had to see patients of his own and was held back from his own work due to waiting for his appointment, many patients are living busy lives with full work schedules. It is important as a provider to respect the patient’s time.

            “The Doctor” illustrated many ways in which physicians treated their patients. In the beginning of the movie, we see that when a patient brings up how the scar on her chest has been affecting her relationship with her husband, Dr. McKee insensitively told her that she looked like someone from a playboy magazine and had “staple marks” to prove it. Rather than trying to elicit emotional context and use that to reinforce the care he was providing to the patient, Dr. McKee instead decided to provide an insensitive remark along with a distasteful joke. Rather than encouraging the patient to speak up, she now feels uncomfortable with asking questions and trusting her doctor with personal information.

            Another example of how physicians treated patients in the movie is when Dr. McKee tells Dr. Abott that he would like to have his tumor surgically removed. Rather than considering what he had asked for, Dr. Abott disregards Dr. McKee’s request and insists on pursuing radiation therapy. She does not discuss what the treatment would entail or the side effects that would come with the treatment, but simply tells him that he would be starting treatment right away. What Dr. Abott should have done was implement “Shared Decision Making”, where she informed the patient of the different treatment options available, as well as information about those treatment options. This would have allowed the patient to be educated about their health condition and given them the opportunity to make a decision regarding their care.

            In the last scene of “The Doctor”, Dr. McKee has an exercise for his interns where they have to play the role of patients. For several days, they would have to wear the same garments, eat the same food, sleep in the same bed, and undergo the same treatments as patients. I believe that putting his interns through this exercise would give them proper understanding of what a patient goes through and how the patient feels during their stay at the hospital. The interns would know first-hand what it is like to not have privacy, and to be wearing thin garments, and to undergo treatments every day. This experience would give the interns the ability to show empathy and compassion to their patients.

            This exercise would also teach the interns to treat their patients differently. Previously, one of the interns referred to the patient as “the terminal”, which completely dehumanized the patient and their experience. This exercise can help the interns understand that they too could have been in the patient’s shoes, and that every patient deserves respect and compassion. Rather than treating a disease, the interns can now understand that they are treating people and should be considerate of their patients’ needs.