Mutual understanding between doctor and patient influences the effectiveness of treatment just as much as correctly diagnosed and fully delivered medical care. A person who feels physical and psychological discomfort with a health condition and has insufficient medical knowledge may find it challenging to build a good relationship with a doctor, cooperate, and focus on the essential prescriptions. The key factors that influence the success of the doctor-patient relationship are trust, loyalty, and attention.
The patient’s trust in the physician is a condition for deepening the physician-patient relationship. This aspect reflects the absence of negative interaction experiences that suggest a destructive relationship. The lack of trust between the patient and the doctor leads to a lack of compliance with prescriptions on the part of the patient (Shipman, 2010). My personal experience showed that this criterion has the most potent effect on the success of the treatment and, as a consequence, the satisfaction of the service. The patient who does not believe that the doctor has enough quality to make relevant prescriptions will not follow the latter properly and will have negative thinking, which will influence the treatment process badly.
Loyalty is a tolerance for unsatisfactory aspects of care on the part of the patient and tolerance for the doctor’s peculiarities of behavior. This aspect includes comfort and sympathy, which reflect perceptions of care and respect in the relationship. For some patients, good communication with the doctor is defined as a long-term relationship with a close friend. Lack of loyalty affects the lack of trust and quality of care (Shipman, 2010). Attention is an important criterion for doctor-patient interactions. Treatment can be uncomfortable and unsatisfactory if the latter are not conscientious enough about doctors’ recommendations or the specifics of their techniques. The doctor, in turn, must be attentive to the patients’ requests and their personal characteristics, lifestyle, and cultural and religious attitudes.
Thus, the nature of this relationship influences the effectiveness, content, and outcome of treatment. Orientation of the doctor to the partner relationship with the client promotes not only improvement of the emotional condition of the patient but also increases adherence to treatment. At the same time, both subjects of the relationship, including the physician and the patient, should consider the factors of trust, loyalty, and attention.
Reference
Shipman, B. (2010). The role of communication in the patient–physician relationship. Journal of Legal Medicine, 31(4), 433–442.