Background (100-030-001-3) Avital and Tami
The patient is visiting the doctor for the 1st time since her husband died a week ago. She has already indicated to the doctor how hard it will be for her to adjust to his death. The doctor has just asked about the other members of the family (two adult children), and how they are all managing this loss together
The action
After telling the patient that she will happily comply with her request for sleeping pills, the doctor now, in this clip, suggests a referral to a psychologist.. The patient resists the idea as strange to her and the doctor encourages her to try it out in any case.
Educational opportunities
- One can focus on the referral per se: was it appropriate? Were the arguments used in its favor convincing? Why did the patient resist? What might have helped convince her to go?
- Within this clip is a nice example of “reflection”: the doctor sympathetically repeats the patient’s complaint about her discomfort in talking to a strange person about intimate matters. What does this accomplish? And how?
- This entire clip can be used to demonstrate the stage of the interview called “handing –over”- the stage where the doctor reveals to the patient his ideas about the diagnosis and treatment with the intention of recruiting the patient’s co-operation
- This clip can also be discussed the point of “partnering”: how do you build a joint agenda? [Part of the way, I believe, is by first arriving at a joint understanding of the problems and their ranking in importance – something which didn’t happen here.]
