Talk to Your Doc (eBook)

Preface xv
Introduction xvii
1 The Changing Health-care System 1
1. General Practitioners 3
2. Hospitals 4
3. Walk-in Clinics 5
4. Health-Insurance Plans 5
5. Ambulatory Care 6
6. Home Care 6
7. Meals on Wheels 7
8. Palliative Care 7
9. Other Community-Based Programs 9
9.1 Mental health care 9
9.2 Pharmacare 10
9.3 Virtual medicine 10
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10. The Health-care Team 11
11. The Limitations of the System 14
2 Knowing Yourself 19
1. Know Your Body 21
2. Know Your Communication Style 22
2.1 Gathering information 22
2.2 Perceiving, organizing, and interpreting information 24
2.3 Listen to yourself and the doctor 25
2.4 Attending to information 25
2.5 Paraphrasing 27
2.6 Listening too hard 29
2.7 Selective listening 30
2.8 Listening with memory aids 32
3. Talk to the Doctor 32
3.1 Assertive delivery 34
3.2 Nonassertive delivery 35
3.3 Aggressive delivery 36
3 Understanding Your Relationship
with Your Doctor 39
1. Dependency and Vulnerability 39
2. Patient Expectations of the Doctor 42
3. What Kind of a Relationship Do You Want
with Your Doctor? 43
3.1 Attitude considerations 44
3.2 Value considerations 45
3.3 Behavior considerations 47
4. Be an Active Participant in Your Health Care 48
4.1 Taking action 48
4.2 Educating yourself 49
4.3 Avoiding taking action 50
5. Are You and Your Doctor a “Good Fit”? 52
Contents vii
4 Communicating with Your Doctor 57
1. Finding a Common Language 57
1.1 Using metaphors 59
1.2 Using humor 60
1.3 Communicating with an aloof doctor 61
2. What Your Doctor Should Know 63
2.1 Family medical history 63
2.2 Communicating discomfort 64
2.3 Discussing physical symptoms 65
2.4 Communicating about emotional symptoms 66
2.5 Mental disorders and feeling alone 67
2.6 Lifestyle challenges 68
2.7 Life support choices 68
3. The Challenge of Remembering 69
3.1 Forgetting the reason for your visit 70
3.2 Forgetting to visit the doctor 71
3.3 Forgetting how to describe the pain 71
4. When You and Your Doctor Disagree 72
4.1 Making sure you are heard 73
4.2 Negotiating differences of opinions 74
4.3 Negotiating your position 76
5. When You Are Dissatisfied or Satisfied 80
5.1 Feeling ignored and dissatisfied 80
5.2 Feeling disrespected 81
5.3 Feeling rushed 83
5.4 Feeling violated 84
5.5 Feeling satisfied 85
5 Communicating on Behalf of Others 89
1. Communicating on Behalf of Children 90
1.1 Younger children 90
1.2 Older children 91
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2. Communicating on Behalf of the Elderly 93
2.1 When couples communicate for one another 94
2.2 When the issue is more than just health 96
2.3 Communicating on behalf of someone with
hearing loss 96
2.4 When an elderly person has concerns 98
3. Communicating on Behalf of Someone Who Is
Terminally Ill 100
3.1 When the person is in denial about dying 100
3.2 When the person wants to die at home 102
4. Communicating on Behalf of People with Language
and Cultural Barriers 103
4.1 When language and culture barriers exist 104
4.2 Overcoming the language and culture gap 105
6 Beyond the Routine Checkup 107
1. Prescribed Drugs 108
1.1 Drug reactions or side effects 108
1.2 Over-the-counter drugs 110
1.3 Staying with the regimen 111
2. When You Prefer Alternative Medicines or Therapies 113
3. When the Doctor Is Away 116
4. When You Are Being Sent for Tests 117
5. Being Referred to a Specialist 120
6. What to Do When a Health-care Crisis Happens 122
7. Chronic Health Problems 123
8. Understanding Illness 124
9. Building a Support Network 125
9.1 Personal support groups 127
10. When Doctors Have No Answers 129
11. When You Should Get a Second Opinion 129
Contents ix
7 Searching for a New Doctor 131
1. Approaches to Looking for a Doctor 132
1.1 Be prepared 132
1.2 Use a positive approach 134
1.3 Find someone you’re comfortable with seeing 135
1.4 Decide what is important for you 136
1.5 Similar views on treatment 138
1.6 Good communication is important 140
8 Beyond Face-to-Face Communication 145
1. Internet, Email, and Health Care 146
2. Interacting with Doctors in the Future 146
2.1 What is telemedicine? 147
2.2 Patients’ response to telemedicine 152
2.3 Occasional doctor resistance to telemedicine 152
3. Closing the Communication Gap 154
Resources 155
1. United States 155
1.1 Medical associations 155
1.2 Other informative US websites 156
2. Canada 156
2.1 Medical associations 156
2.2 Other informative Canadian websites 157
3. Disease-Specific Websites 157
4. Internet Support Groups 159
5. Virtual Medical and Telemedicine Websites 159
6. Additional Reading 160
6.1 Books 160
6.2 Self-Counsel Press Eldercare Series 160
6.3 Websites 161
Download Kit 163
x Talk to Your Doc
Checklists
1. Do You Know What’s Available? 17
2. What Kind of Patient Are You? 23
3. How Do You Gather Information? 24
4. Not Listening 31
5. What Kind of Listener Are You? 33
6. What Type of Communication Style Do You Use? 38
7. Do You Take an Active Role? 48
8. Are You an Inactive Participant? 51
9. The Pros and Cons of Your Relationship with Your Doctor 55
10. Do You and Your Doctor Have a Good Relationship? 56
11. Do You Communicate with Your Doctor Effectively? 87
12. Ask the Doctor or Pharmacist about Medications —
Prescription and Over-the-Counter 112
13. Questions to Ask a Homeopathic or Naturopathic Doctor
or Pharmacist 115
14. What to Ask the Doctor about Your Tests 120
15. What to Ask the Specialist 121
16. Ask the Doctor 126
17. Questions to Ask a Potential New Doctor 142