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The final instalment in the doctor myths series asks whether a physician's approach really affects quality of care by MICHAEL HINGSTON
In the preface to Bedside Manners, a 2005 collection of poetic vignettes about his interactions with patients over the years, American gastroenterologist Dr. David Watts describes the "instant, profound human interaction" that can occur when a physician sits down and really engages with the person he or she is treating.
Not only that, Dr. Watts says he believes that patients can actually gain the confidence to radically improve their lives as a result. "I've seen patients go out and divorce their spouses or change their careers based upon what they learn about themselves," he writes - all thanks to an engaging bedside manner.
This isn't a controversial opinion to hold. Bedside manner is often thought of as a kind of shorthand insight into a doctor's general prowess as a medical practitioner. Many patients assume that a physician who takes the time to actually have a conversation with them must be similarly attentive behind the scenes. By the same token, the thinking goes, if a doctor is brusque in person, how much attention could he or she really be giving to that patient's charts?
That's precisely the idea that we're here to (possibly) debunk. Is there in fact a connection between a doctor's bedside manner and his or her general competency? If so, how strong is it? And where did folks in our society get this idea in the first place?
The bedside
It's partly intuitive. Doctors are supposed to help people, after all, and mental comfort is a big part of that. So let's go back to the beginning. The Hippocratic Oath - written sometime in the late 5th century BC, and in many ways the urtext on bedside manner - advises physicians to "use treatment to help the sick according to (their) ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrongdoing"
That's the practical part, the part everyone knows. But it, along with other documents from the so-called "Hippocratic Corpus," also speak to a doctor's general carriage and mannerisms, the point of which, at least in part, is to assure patients that they are in good, capable hands.
The...