Fundamentals of Doctor-Patient Relationship (DPR)

Let us first understand what is the Doctor-Patient Relationship (DPR)?

A doctor-patient relationship (DPR) is considered to be the core element in the ethical principles of medicine. DPR is usually developed when a physician tends to a patient’s medical needs via check-up, diagnosis, and treatment in an agreeable manner.

Fundamentals of DPR:

There are a few fundamental rights & duties in the DPR. They would be as below:

  • Communication: Communication plays a vital role in the Doctor-Patient Relationship. Here both the patient as well as the doctor should have Good Communication Skills. The patient should be able to explain what health difficulty he/she is facing followed by the same the doctor should have good listening skills where he/she should listen to the patient carefully and patiently and then he/she should be able to elaborately explain the problem that the patient has and also suggest him/her the necessary solution.
  • Doctor Empathy: Empathy plays a very important role in improving the Doctor-Patient Relationship. Empathy helps the doctor to better understand the symptoms that the patient has got and also the need for the treatment.
  • Trust: The most important thing in Doctor-Patient Relationship is to have trust. Trusting a particular doctor helps the patient to openly discuss the health issues that he/she is facing. Trusting a doctor doesn’t mean that the patient should have blind trust. Because nowadays trusting blindly can be harmful to both the patient as well as the doctor.
  • Consent Information: This is based on the moral and legal arguments of the patient’s autonomy (independence in decision making). The doctor here should be morally and legally consult the family members of the patient and counsel them on the positive as well as negative outcomes of the treatment. Following which the patient should also have complete independence in decision making may be in continuing the treatment or taking discharge or moving to any other hospital or even taking the second opinion from any other doctor.
  • Professional Boundaries: This deals with the doctors that misbehave with their patients by crossing the limits of the relationship in the professional areas. The following behavior should be avoided by the doctors:
    • Staring at a patient in an inappropriate manner
    • Burdening the patient with unnecessary personal information

With all this, we can avoid the manhandling of the doctors and ransacking of the hospitals that are happening nowadays in the world.

 Compiled by: Mr. Sanket Mamadapur: Contact: 9964521593

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