What Patients Taught me as a General Practice Nurse

One of the most common complaints I heard from patients whilst nursing, and often still hear is that patients felt they were not listened to. Worse than that many women felt they were written off as 'too emotional' or 'difficult'. Nobody should feel like that when they are with a healthcare professional.

I fully appreciate that staff are busy, sometimes reactive when under extreme pressure. We are all human. Awareness, where appropriate, necessitates a sincere brief apology. No need to gush! Patients, believe it or not recognise you are human. So are they. It takes 30 seconds to change the trajectory of that patients experience, Whether we like it or not not, we are in a privileged position of trust and what we say affects the life quality of the person in front of us.

I have clients that work in healthcare and more than anybody they need to be supported and cared for, even for just an hour or 1.5 hours a week. I also worked with a great GP for many years, who was empathetic, honest and respectful to his staff and patients always. I have worked with others more briefly, because they had a very high bar to equal.

As a patient you are being asked to trust fully in the practitioner. That is a very privileged position for the practitioner and part of their job is delivering information and options to you. As a practitioner, being academically intelligent and emotionally intelligent are two very different types of intelligence. Both are a job requirement. If we make the person in front of us feel 'less than' I believe we are failing abominably in our role as healthcare professionals.