As many of you all know, professionally, I work in the field
of Radiology. On average, I see 15-20
patients/day. I see a variety of types of
patients: men, women, young, elderly, rich, poor, healthy, ill, and the list
goes on. I truly enjoy the work that I do. I am blessed to have the opportunity
to make a difference in people’s lives. I enjoy meeting so many different
people everyday. I enjoy the moments we share and many times I am blessed by
the brief conversations we have. I get to meet amazing people and so often they
share little snippets of their lives with me. We smile, we laugh, sometimes
(believe it or not) we are even moved to tears. While many of my patients fall
in to the aforementioned pleasant category, unfortunately that is not always
the case.
In the medical field, we often see patients who fall into a
different category –
one we tend to refer to as “difficult patients”. Now a
patient may be labeled a “difficult patient” for a variety of reasons. For the
most part, a patient who is described as “difficult” is labeled as such because
they exhibit some type of behavior (intentionally or unintentionally) that impedes, complicates, or hinders the
medical treatment being offered. This is exhibited in a variety of ways. For
example, there are some patients who are angry and unpleasant from the moment
they walk in the door. They are short with the staff, they are confrontational,
and make it very difficult to treat them. They are unwilling to provide or make
it difficult for you to obtain information necessary to provide them with the
best possible care. Some patients are difficult to treat, or more challenging
to treat because they do not trust that you have their best interests at heart.
These people are suspicious of you and question everything. Some are difficult
to treat because they uncooperative and do not follow instructions well. They do not take their
medication as prescribed, don’t show up for appointments, or do not cooperate
during an exam. These are just a few examples.
As medical professionals and doctors, the goal is (or should
be) optimal health and healing. Speaking for myself personally, I am here to
help. With this in mind, it perplexes me when I attempt to help someone, and
instead of assisting in their own treatment and progress, they impede progress.
As I began to contemplate this, I began to consider the ultimate Healer. Jehovah
Rapha – the God who heals. I sat and thought, “Wow. How often are WE difficult
patients?” Boom. It hit me hard. God loves us so much. He has so much for us.
He wants the best for us. How often do we impede and or hinder His blessing and
healing in our lives, because we are
