It was a busy antenatal outpatient clinic, like on all Mondays. We had five doctors less than usual due to various reasons. Naturally those present were struggling to get the work done before it got too late. A team of junior doctors was writing clinical histories and checking patients' blood pressures and laboratory reports. Senior doctors were busy examining these patients after the junior doctors were done. When I realized I had seen the last patient waiting to be examined in my clinic room, I went out to check the progress of work. A few patients were still waiting around the junior doctors. I found a vacant chair and settled down to write histories and check blood pressures.
"Doctor, the doctor who was sitting here before you checked my blood pressure, but did not write it on my case paper" complained a patient while I was pumping air into the cuff of a sphygmomanometer tied around another patient's arm. I turned around, looked at her face and realized she was upset. She had reason enough to be upset. She had been sent back from one of the examination rooms to get her blood pressure recorded. To get into the same queue twice was not fun. I deflated the cuff, noted the blood pressure, removed the cuff, and said to this angry patient,
"OK, I will write it. What blood pressure shall I write?"
She laughed, her anger forgotten. I had defused the situation and disarmed her, all in one go. I checked her blood pressure, wrote it down on her case paper, and said in a conversational voice,
"With so many patients to attend to, sometimes the doctors forget to write something."
She smiled and went away. I smiled and went on to check the blood pressure of the next patient, happy that I had avoided an unpleasant situation.
"Doctor, the doctor who was sitting here before you checked my blood pressure, but did not write it on my case paper" complained a patient while I was pumping air into the cuff of a sphygmomanometer tied around another patient's arm. I turned around, looked at her face and realized she was upset. She had reason enough to be upset. She had been sent back from one of the examination rooms to get her blood pressure recorded. To get into the same queue twice was not fun. I deflated the cuff, noted the blood pressure, removed the cuff, and said to this angry patient,
"OK, I will write it. What blood pressure shall I write?"
She laughed, her anger forgotten. I had defused the situation and disarmed her, all in one go. I checked her blood pressure, wrote it down on her case paper, and said in a conversational voice,
"With so many patients to attend to, sometimes the doctors forget to write something."
She smiled and went away. I smiled and went on to check the blood pressure of the next patient, happy that I had avoided an unpleasant situation.
