dr. ronald e. mcnair acknowledgements - University of St. Thomas

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UST McNair Scholars Program Research Journal half. And then there are the patients who want to be participants by talking one on one with the doctor and want all the information that is possible and they want to be involved in the decision making.” Analysis of the transcripts shows many women saying what one patient said best, “there needs to be a match on the doctors who are comfortable with each kind of patients.” Most of the participants fit the criteria for the second patient who wants to be involved in the care they receive because they wanted to be able to perform their music after treatments. Many of the women gave advice to future patients by saying “If there is a mismatching of the right doctor to the right patient, there will be conflict and the patient might not feel cared for.” There are several examples of this mismatching of patients to doctors, or instances where patients did not feel comfortable with the doctors they had. One particular example occurred with a woman who had difficulty with her health care professionals. She recalled and said “I had to deal with so many nonmedical people when you went for radiation, there were like six people standing around, you know. And here I’m lying down with my breast hanging down being ready to get shot up and they were like wearing uniforms. They looked almost like airline attendants. And I thought why do they need all of these people around here.” This woman felt uncomfortable with the situation in the operating room. Though her doctors were in the room, she remarked she did not feel as if she could talk to them due to the lack of intimacy she felt. Mattering in the long term/Survivorship Analysis revealed many women looking for support and a sense they mattered from their doctors after treatments were over. Most women commented they found they received the most attention when they were going through the cancer treatments. When the treatments were over, they recalled having problems adjusting to their damaged bodies as relating to performing and making music. A woman expressed her concern toward this topic by saying she found doctors focus more on the short term (e.g. getting rid of the cancer) than the long term (e.g. good quality of life). She went on to say, “I don’t think medical doctors understand holding an instrument for a solid hour, it’s not easy. I suppose a way to make them understand is to relate it to some sport. They might have a better understanding that it is very difficult to hold an instrument after having lymph nodes taken out.” Almost all of the women in this study remarked that 8 there needs to be more attention given to living with the long term effects of cancer treatments. The women remarked often they do not want to bother their medical team when they come in for routine checkups because they feel the doctors are often busy with other patients. The doctors who truly made women feel like they mattered were the ones who addressed these issues. A patient put best what others were trying to articulate by saying, “I felt like my all the medical care that I had was excellent. I don’t find a lot of attention to long term care and how are you are in the long run. I think doctors have a lot of time to surround, mainly when I go to my oncologist appointment, which I will in April, a few key questions will be asked and they will get my ****bones and see**** and they will check on the critical things and do I have cancer. There are no signs that I have cancer. And sometimes my oncologist does ask about my comfort level and I guess, I always kind of get the idea, you know, they are busy dealing with people who are dying from cancer, they are not all that concerned with how am I doing in the long term. And I have never said that I’m doing poorly. I have continued to pursue this soreness and each time I go in I say well, you know, can you, to begin with I wanted physical therapy and he was willing to, you know, write a prescription for that and the massage is helping so he took my massage person’s card, um, but I guess I would hope for a little bit more attention to the long term effects.” CONSEQUENCES OF MATTERING It is important to note that many women in this study wanted to matter to their doctors. A patient recalled her experience with her doctors by saying “I had to switch doctors because they just didn’t seem to understand, you know. I wanted someone who would understand and be able to tell me how these treatments would affect my voice as a musician.” Many patients echoed what this woman said by saying they preferred the second type of doctor because it seemed this ideal doctor cared about them as a patient as well as a person. DISCUSSION The aim of this research was to see if patients perceive they matter to their health care providers. Patients stated mattering to doctors was very important in receiving quality care. Patients often switched doctors when they felt they didn’t matter to their health care providers. The main
Oluwademilade Adediran Psychology Mattering finding from this study was doctors made patients feel like they mattered when they took the time to talk, answered questions, and view the patient as a person who wanted to be able to have good quality of life after treatments. The results also indicated women felt they were merely cancer patients when they were given their diagnosis over the phone and by nurses who did not have sufficient information. Results from the current study coincide with findings from previous research from Janssen & MacLeod, (2010) which also found that patients dislike being treated as only as their cancer and not as people. This research also investigated whether or not patients perceived whether doctors took their life and livelihood into account when prescribing treatments. It seems some doctors are still focused on the elimination of the cancer and fail to look at long term effects of cancer treatments. Some doctors failed to address the side effects of treatments, which led to patient difficulty in regaining their livelihood (Schmalenberger, S., Giebenhain, Gessert, & Starr, 2011; Schmalenberger, Giebenhain, Starr, & Gessert, 2011). The patients from this study remarked if the doctor could give them back their lives but take away their means of providing for themselves, their quality of life had been greatly diminished. Being musicians is their passion, identity, and way of life. These women have trained for a lifetime to make music, and therefore cannot merely switch professions. Medical treatments are essentially universal and not individualized. Doctors usually follow the same protocols. In the present study, largely ignored? Or downplayed the fact these women were musicians whose careers depend on their finely tuned physical abilities. Results from this study indicate when dealing with patients, they perceived the doctor was concerned with the cancer to the exclusion of anything else. Some doctors asked the patient how treatments were affecting them, but the major focus was on getting rid of the cancer, everything else came second. Research indicates more women than ever are found to survive breast cancer. This rise in survival rates can be attributed to better methods of detection and intervention. Because we are more likely to survive cancer today, it makes sense that health care providers need to broaden their focus to include individualized treatments to successfully eliminate the cancer as well as minimize threats to patients’ careers. This will help maintain the patients’ quality of life after treatments are over. Taking into consideration the concerns of the present sample, recommendations for improved holistic health care might include the following: in order for doctors to better suit their patients and do no harm as the Hippocratic Oath states, doctors could facilitate better communication with patients. This could help patients perceive they matter as people and are not just a name on a chart. Patients ought to be able to tell their doctors they are a mechanic, surgeon, professional athlete, or ballet dancer, and therefore must (if at all possible) be able to do specific activities after treatments have ended. Doctors ought to share with the patient all possible treatment options, probabilities of success, as well as the pros and cons of each treatment option. This will ensure the patient has input about how they would like to be treated. Furthermore, health care professionals might consider creating a relationship that conveys they care for the patient. The relationship need only include specific characteristics which include: 1) the doctor could listen to the patient and direct them to resources which could give the woman further information about treatment options; 2) the doctor could keep the lines of communication open by making sure that meetings with the patient last as long as they need to; 3) doctors ought to take their time when meeting with each patient and not try to hurry through the process. This patience exhibited by the doctor could imply to the patient they can share their thoughts. The recommendations stated above were found to be what the ideal doctor should engage in according to study conducted by Theisel (2010). This “ideal” interaction does not facilitate more work for the doctor who has many patients to help, but helps him or her understand where the patient is coming from. The complaints from the women were not just that the doctor did not take his or her time. It was that the doctor was not purposeful in the use of his or her time. A patient explained “I see my surgeon, oncologist, and radiation oncologist every couple of months. And I have to tell you, when I go in for my treatment there, the visits get quicker and quicker.” Practical constraints in the age of managed care imply it is hard for a doctor to be able to give each patient the attention they might deserve. Though this is the case, doctors ought to make their patients feel they matter by purposefully using the time they are allotted per 9
Page 1 and 2: DR. RONALD E. MCNAIR Ronald E. McNa
Page 3 and 4: ABSTRACT The purpose of the present
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Page 21 and 22: ABSTRACT Early childhood education
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Bridgette Kelly Environmental Scien
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ABSTRACT This research discusses he
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Chia Lee Public Health Health care
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Mai-Eng Lee Social Work Teachers’
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APPENDIX B INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Back
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dr. ronald e. mcnair acknowledgements - University of St. Thomas

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