Professional Behavior I

Compassion, Empathy, and Altruism

February 5th, 2016
1. If the patient has cancer and the family says, Dont tell him. What should you
do and why? How do your personal feelings differ from your professional
responsibilities in this type of situation?
You should keep the results private from the family unless expressly permitted by the
patient. The patient has the right to access their own medical record and has the right
to designate who else has access. Personally, I can understand that the family is trying
to protect the patient from any emotional or mental stress that might come about as a
result of being diagnosed with cancer. However, the diagnosis might change the
patients priorities and by withholding this information I could negatively affect the
patient on a level beyond protecting them from negative stress. Also, if I were the
patient I would want to know about my disease status regardless of the prognosis.
That being said, if my patient requested I withhold this information from them I would
also respect my patients wishes.
2. Should a medical student give a patient a diagnosis, and if not, why not?
A medical student should not give a patient a diagnosis outside of the supervision of an
attending physician. Medical students do not yet have a legal scope of practice and do
not yet have the requisite knowledge-base and experience to be held responsible to
effectively support the diagnosis. However, it may be appropriate for the student to
deliver a difficult diagnosis after discussing the case with the head physician for the
purposes of practicing empathy and tough conversations. That being said, a medical
student should not off-handedly tell a patient you probably have x because this is
unprofessional and could be misleading.
3. Would you have hugged the patient with AIDS? Discuss the pros and cons.
Without knowing how the disease was transmitted and knowing it was essentially a
death sentence, I would have implemented universal precautions and then given them a
hug. The pros of giving them a hug include to build a connection with the person and
offer them some compassion. The cons of giving them a hug include putting yourself
and them at risk of contracting disease. By putting on a gown, gloves, and a face
shield, I would be able to meet their need for human contact without potentially
sacrificing my ability to help future patients should I become infected and die.
4. Thinking about your personal & professional development, which factor are you
most interested in improving in regards to compassion, empathy, and altruism?
What steps have you taken or will take to reach this goal?

Regarding personal and professional development, I am interested in improving my

ability to recognize when my patients need fulfillment of emotional needs and
appropriately fulfill those needs without taking away from the doctor-patient
relationship. To reach this goal, during conversations with patients I make an effort to
name certain emotions they could be feeling in response to their present illness or
recent diagnosis. The patient either confirms or denies the emotion and goes on to
name a more accurate emotion offering me immediate feedback and allowing me to
enhance my understanding of what certain emotions look like. Further, as per our
clinical skills course, naming or attempting to name the emotions helps build rapport
with and can often be cathartic for the patient.
5. With your emotional intelligence score, if this was a patient of a different culture,
how would you react and how would you be able to compensate? Which
emotional intelligence factor most applies to this type of situation? Did you score
high or low in this area?
I would do the same regardless of the culture, considering that the patient asked for the
hug. If the patient had not asked for the hug, I would not offer them a hug. The
emotional intelligence factor that applies in this situation is that of social insight. I
scored an 82 in this area.