On Time
On being laughed at for spending too much time with patients — and why five extra minutes might be the most important part of the consult.
A few days ago, I get laughed at for speaking too much to the patients. Sure, sometimes I do talk in circles and spoken the same point over and over again; Sure, I’d like to take my time in explaining things to the patients. But that’s the way I do things, I’m not sorry for being too slow for their standard.
Sometimes, if we consider ourselves important, our time seemed more precious than others. Five more minutes in the waiting room is okay, five more minutes of KIE is unacceptable.
Consider this; what if the five minutes of talking with the patient is actually not five minutes?
They may spent hours in the waiting room, or riding on a motorbike from several kilometers away. They may waited days to have someone accompany them, or weeks saving the money.
And all of that equals five minutes of rushed anamnesis and halfhearted explanations?