Yet Another Cycling Forum
Off Topic => The Pub => Topic started by: Sergeant Pluck on 25 April, 2008, 08:52:30 pm
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How do you, the great unwashed ;), like to be referred to by nurses and doctors in the context of attending for clinic visits or investigations?
How do you prefer to be referred to in written information about your investigation, for example? How would you prefer to hear yourselves referred to in the course of a conversation with the staff? Are you a patient, a client, a customer, or do you prefer to be referred to simply as people / persons / individuals? Do you find it objectionable to be referred to as a patient? Do you feel this labels you as a "sick person"?
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I have no problem with being referred to as a "patient" by medical staff.
My line of work has similar "issues" re what to call clients/service users/customers/etc. as they are mostly "involuntary" and under a degree of compulsion to attend, despite having "agreed" to be subject to a court order to attend.
I do feel there is some scope to think about these matters and what impact "labelling" has on the relationship, but I am quite happy to be a "patient" with medical staff. I do not think it implies I am necessarily sick, although the nature of the realtionship may suggest some degree of ailment....
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Not a problem being the 'patient'. I was a patient today at my physiotherapy, it was great.
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I find that reassuring. Where I work (cardiac imaging) patients are routinely referred to as such and I don't think there is a problem with it. Some are undoubtedly very ill, many are not. Personally I don't think the term "labels" people one way or the other apart from the fact that the patients are receiving care or treatment or undergoing a test or scan.
I have no problem being referred to as a patient myself in any health care environment.
The term seems to be disapproved of in some circles where I work and I was puzzled as to the origin of the disapproval. (It seems to emanate from corporate communications types).
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I never liked the change from 'passenger' to 'customer' on trains. I want to be identified as someone trying to travel somewhere, not someone who's only succeeded in handing over money.
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Definitely a patient. Anyone who wants to make sick people become "clients" should be given an enema.
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Definitely a patient. Anyone who wants to make sick people become "clients" should be given an enema.
Yep.
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I don't care one way or the other. Patient is what I expect to be called whenever I visit anywhere for medical treatment. Although I feel more like a customer when I visit the dentist.
I think we all accept without thinking by whatever name we are referred to.
Not so many years ago the only people in teams were in some sort of competition with an opposition, now everyone is in a team of some sort at work, sales team; maintenance team; management team.
The words don't really matter to the punter/customer/patient IMO, it's the service that counts.
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anything as long as medical staff don't call me the 'subject'. I remember when the dentist would ask me if I'd been a good boy in between check ups. They should bring that back for adults.
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Customer, Patient, Client, Victim: all fine by me.
Just don't call me T.F.Bundy (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=T.F.BUNDY)
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My Dad used to say "You can call me anything you like as long as you don't call me late for dinner."
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I received my P60 this week and the letter addressed me as "Dear Pensioner".
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I received my P60 this week and the letter addressed me as "Dear Pensioner".
;D ;D ;D
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Sir
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I received my P60 this week and the letter addressed me as "Dear Pensioner".
Oh dear ;D
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We had this debate here a few years ago and one of the consultant neurologists - a couthy Glasgwegian - put an end to the client/patient argument by saying "there's twa professions hae clients - that's lawyers and hoors." ;D
There's a move in some local authorities to call the residents of that areas "customers" which I hate. Customers have a choice. You don't have a choice of which local authority provides your services you're stuck with the one you live in and the only way to change that is to move. And certainly many social work clients are receiving input against their will as compelled by law, so the notion of customer is ridiculous.
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I am a patient - plain and simple...
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I am a patient - plain and simple...
I too am plain & simple. I prefer to be regarded as a patient .
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This is confirming what I already know from patients themselves, but it's good to hear it from people that aren't already in a hospital department being asked while being treated.
Our communications department seem to think otherwise at times. ::-)
"there's twa professions hae clients - that's lawyers and hoors."
;D
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I am a patient - plain and simple...
Is that not more usually spelt pedant?
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I am a patient - plain and simple...
Is that not more usually spelt pedant?
[Looks for the two finger smiley]
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I loathe the term "service users" ::-) I'd rather be a patient when I'm in hospital, a customer in a shop, a client at the solicitor's and a bloke the rest of the time.
N
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Having had similar problems when working on wards, the terms "punter" and "victim" would wind-up those who were trying to remove that henious label of patient
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When I had my vasectomy, post op I was referred to as a 'Jaffa'.
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"The sub-healthy community"
;)
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;D
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When I was a student Nurse in Colchester, 1992, We were given the death penalty if we ever referred to anything but "Clients and Carers or Health Care Professionals" and it still winds me up now.
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Patients, and in transport, passengers.
Clients and customers are just giving a company money. Patients are being made well, and travellers are going somewhere. The change in wording changes the emphasis in a way that makes my skin crawl.
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Midwives have "Mothers"
Paediatric nurses have children
Genera nurses have patients
Prostitutes have Clients
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A patient definitely.
Non of that newspeak!
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Here's a term I've had an earful of today, in relation to patients: bariatric.
:sick:
Give me good old "morbidly obese" any day.
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There's a move in some local authorities to call the residents of that areas "customers" which I hate. Customers have a choice. You don't have a choice of which local authority provides your services you're stuck with the one you live in and the only way to change that is to move. And certainly many social work clients are receiving input against their will as compelled by law, so the notion of customer is ridiculous.
When I was working for the civil service - state benefits - I used to correct local authorities which called people "customers". I much prefer "resident".
I doubt there is anywhere worse than the civil service for using the language of business - customers, end users etc. OTOH some people in the office had much worse terms...
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Here's a term I've had an earful of today, in relation to patients: bariatric.
:sick:
Give me good old "morbidly obese" any day.
I like that! :)
I'm not fat - I'm 'bariatric'! :thumbsup: ;D
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The name's Attrick. Barry Attrick.
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When I joined the Civil Service (DH)SS in 1974, we were told to refer to people as 'IP's' (Insured Persons). The PC brigade would have a field day with that now ???
N
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Patients, and in transport, passengers.
Clients and customers are just giving a company money. Patients are being made well, and travellers are going somewhere. The change in wording changes the emphasis in a way that makes my skin crawl.
WHS
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"The sub-healthy community"
;)
Non-patient-statusly challenged.
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One the train the other day the person in charge of the staff on the train (head steward ?) announced herself over the intercom as "your team leader for today" which seems grammatically incorrect as I was not in any kind of team with her and also to imply that they rotated positions every day which I suspect is not the intention.
Doctor / Nurse and patient for heavens sake. Who wants to play health care professionals and customers ? It doesn't sound like fun at all.
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A person could be a bariatric patient, in the same way they could be a cardiac patient or a renal patient. You couldn't describe a person as bariatric alone.
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I think it depends on the service. Physical health services I think patient seems OK. Mental health services (the area in which I am currently retraining) I find it more problematic. Doctor/patient is a very power-laden relationship, and one of the big problems I have with the way that mental health services are structured at present is the way in which the relationship is YOU are the ill person and I am the healthy sane professional who is going to fix you.
It takes agency away from people and that in itself can have a negative impact. It also places the psychologist/psychiatrist in the position of expert - whilst they do of course have professional expertise, the patient/client/service user also has a great deal of expertise on their own experience, and there's a tendency for that to be ignored.
I'm not sure that service user is that much of an improvement, though, and client definitely not. (People who've had experience of the enforced parts of the mental health system tend to be very scathing about "service user", because they would resist the idea that they've been provided with any "service".)
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My line of work has similar "issues" re what to call clients/service users/customers/etc. as they are mostly "involuntary" and under a degree of compulsion to attend, despite having "agreed" to be subject to a court order to attend.
May I suggest penitent?
On edit: er, I have no idea what sort of court orders these are. Penitent would be a good word for people subject to non-custodial punishment or enforced rehabilitation after a crime, anyway.
On further edit: now spelled right.
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A person could be a bariatric patient, in the same way they could be a cardiac patient or a renal patient. You couldn't describe a person as bariatric alone.
Yes, but some of these terms are used in that way, e.g. geriatric.
"She'd be much better off in with the other geriatrics" ::-) :sick:
Not where I work, y'understand.
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It's just the ever pervasive corporate bullshit. Much like everything must have a strapline or mission statement.
Why does my borough council need to call itself "The Brighter Borough"?
And why the f*** does the college down the road have to waste money each and every year rebranding itself (http://www.south-thames.ac.uk/Chapters/ViewChapter.aspx?PageId=85#471)?
"
The revamped branding incorporates:
* a distinctive new logo
* fresh corporate colours
* and an updated new vision, mission and values
The new branding is supported by a new strapline: ‘shaping your future'
Commenting on the rationale behind the re-brand, Sarah Horrell, Director of Marketing and Business Development said, "We have adapted to reflect the changes currently being experienced in the world of FE, to drive our own aspiration and affirm our position as a vocationally focused college serving the needs of the community and business."
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I feel queasy.
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I think my discomfort from being called a "customer" if visiting a hospital is because it is just plain wrong in my eyes. Customers pay for a product. Customers don't tend to receive a service that's free at the point of use (mostly).
When my other half went private using his company BUPA cover for a procedure he had no problem being referred to as a customer, and his expectations were a whole lot different too.
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Our Training and Education Department, formerly known as just that, underwent a "rebranding" not long ago. It's called "Evolve" now. No-one knows what "Evolve" is. Any relevant queries are always about "training" or "education"; nobody calls it Evolve. It's listed in the work email and phonebook as Training and Education as otherwise no-one could find it.
Outside agency, fancy logo, and the laughable bit was that the rooms in the small department, formerly quite sensibly known as 1, 2, and 3, are now re-named "Oak", "Chestnut, "Willow".
Growth and all that y'see. ::-)
The rooms have remained precisely the same. The training that goes on is either the same, or in the cases where it has been contracted out, far worse.
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...Doctor/patient is a very power-laden relationship...
Being a doctor puts a person in a position of power; there's no getting away from that. The doctor needs to be aware of it, and of the responsibility that goes with it.
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Commenting on the rationale behind the re-brand, Sarah Horrell, Director of Marketing and Business Development said, "We have adapted to reflect the changes currently being experienced in the world of FE, to drive our own aspiration and affirm our position as a vocationally focused college serving the needs of the community and business."
That seems like toomanywords speak for
Trying to get it right ::-)
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I would like to be addressed as "your grace", but as my elevation to Dukedom is somewhat unlikely I'll make do with "patient".