Medicine is getting more and more out of touch with the real society. In my night shifts in Boxhill Hospital, I have witnessed many decisions being made without first considering the most basic rule of medicine: FIRST DO NO HARM.
Old patients are the ones who suffer the most, they are often very misunderstood, and treated all alike: If a patient looks confused, sounds a bit confused, then just give him/her some anti-psychotic medication, or a anti-anxiety medication. If that doesn't work and patient becomes aggressive, just restrain him/her to bed.
I find this practise very disturbing. There are always good justifications for their actions. "The patient refuses to cooperate", "The patient is disturbing all the other patients", "The patient is at risk of absconding", "I have too many patients to look after, I can't be spending 30-60 minutes just trying to calm him down". The list goes on.
I absolutely refuse to conform to these practices unless it is the last resort. Many a times I have managed to calm these patients down just by listening to them, acknowledging their pain and suffering and loneliness, and then negotiating a win-win deal with them.
Maybe it's my turn to start a trend. A retro trend in fact, one that reminds every health worker to FIRST DO NO HARM.
Wish me luck.
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