5 Types of Difficult Patients and How to Approach Them

Studies show that about 15% of doctor-patient meetings are considered ineffective because they do not know how to react to many difficult types of patients who behave inappropriately.

Even if it seems difficult to manage, such a situation requires a special approach from the doctor, who can resolve a conflict.

Here are some common scenarios you may encounter in your career as a doctor because of difficult patients, along with strategies for addressing them:

1. Angry patients with a defensive attitude

In general, you can recognize such difficult patients by a few concrete signs, namely: they hold their fists tight, they are frowning, they play with their hands or they breathe hard. When you see these signs, try to find the source of the patient's difficulty and pay attention to how his emotions relate to the medical problems. It is advisable not to involve him in a conflict. Use statements such as "I can understand how you feel" and follow up with a discussion about what you can do to resolve the situation.

For example, a difficult patient who has a health problem and has waited an hour because the doctor had an emergency at the hospital may be very upset when you arrive at the office. He can say, "My time is as valuable as yours. I don't understand why I had to wait. " This reply may provoke an angry reaction, but a simple deep breath and a sincere apology would be a constructive response that can ease the situation.

If you feel that a patient is afraid of a diagnosis or treatment, encourage him to talk about it and assess whether the fear is appropriate in proportion to the situation. In this way, you will resolve a possible conflict in the relationship with the difficult patient.

2. Patients who manipulate the doctor

This type of patient often plays the role of victim, threatening to sue or commit suicide. They tend to exhibit this impulsive behavior to get what they want, and it is often difficult to distinguish between a possible personality disorder and manipulative behavior. To manage meetings with manipulative patients, you need to be aware of your own emotions, try to understand the patient's expectations, and realize that sometimes you have to say "no."

3. Patients who call the doctor

These difficult patients have multiple vague or exaggerated symptoms and often suffer from anxiety, depression, and personality disorders. They do not trust doctors, so they go to more for investigations. To cope with such behavior you must have an attitude of compassion and understanding.

A difficult communication strategy with such a patient could be to approach the problem from the beginning of the meeting. For example, "I noticed that you went to several doctors and did medical tests to try to find out the cause of your symptoms. I admit that the symptoms seem annoying, but I think these tests ruled out any serious medical problems. "

4. Demoralized patients

These patients may become demoralized because of the large number of medical problems or because of a serious problem. They are afraid, they are internalized and they are embarrassed to ask the doctor questions. Communicating with such patients can be extremely difficult.

The first step to a productive interaction is to call the patient to the control as often as possible and to communicate with him, only in this way he can become more open and much more courageous in the face of health problems.

5. Patient patients

These patients may become difficult because they are agitated, they do not wait for the doctor's explanations, but they want to know directly what the problem is, no matter how serious it is. To recognize the effect of health problems, patients need to become familiar with the normal stages of pain and the context in which they occur, so some doctors provide them with progressive information so as not to panic the patient.

In this case, help patients to control their agitation and impatience by validating their emotional experience and making sure they understand that health problems are different from person to person, so it takes time.

The way you approach difficult patients is directly reflected in the quality of the relationship with them. Most of the time, the situations created by difficult patients can be considered an impediment in the development of the professional activity, but if you look at everything as an opportunity, you will find that these difficult situations are opportunities through which you can strengthen your communication skills with patients. general.