Have you ever felt misjudged by a health profession (or treated unfairly by a clinic or hospital? You may be a victim of patient profiling. I choose this image of a man saying that his doctor profiled him as drug addict, to talk about patient profiling. Patient profiling is the practice of regarding particular patients as more likely to have certain behaviors or illnesses based on their appearance, race, gender, financial status, or other observable characteristics (“Patient Profiling: Are You a Victim? | Pamela Wible MD”, 2019). This image shows a man holding a paper indicating that” my doctor profiled me as drug addict, looking at this picture the man seems confused or wondering why his doctor labeled him drug addict. when I came across this picture ,my mind quickly played the incident which happened during my general block.
In my clinical practice I came across a scenario where I was treating a patient with burnt wounds. This patient had 80% of his body burnt. First few days our treatment sessions with him went well. On the fourth day, one of the nurses found out that the patient was burnt by the community because they found him stealing,as from that day nurses started treating him bad, calling him by names “such as criminal, gangster ”. I remember one day when I went to his ward to treat him, I found a nurse there shouting at him telling him that he must wake up from the bed and go to the bathroom by himself knowing well that by that he was unable to walk. I went to another ward to see other patient and go back to him later. When I greeted him, he asked me “why are you here to treat me because everybody sees me as criminal” after hearing this i took a deep bring still starring at him ,trying to digest the information.he then asked me “are you not afraid of me?” I told him that he was not presented as criminal to me but a patient. He then requested me to leave, he said he is not in the mood of any treatment. This whole scenario it clearly indicates that when patients are being profiled badly it affects them emotionally and psychological this result in poor result with regard to treatment.
According to Woolfolk & Wilson (2007) state that, when individuals are called by labels, their attitude toward their evaluations (participation, treatment, etc.) are affected. Profiling patient or labeling patient can result in bad outcomes measurement with regard to the treatment. according to Gelfand (2003) there are Some Negative Consequences of profiling or labeling patient. Therapists will tend to see the patient profile or diagnosis on the person/patient, so therapists may tend to focus on information that confirms the label instead of focusing on patient’s needs. Labeling an individual may lead to self-fulfilling prophecies and stigmatization(Gelfand,2003). Moreover, others often tend to form negative attitudes about individuals who have labeled/profiled, and this can lead to negative actions toward the person. For example, what happen in the scenario I mentioned above, after some other clinical staff members heard that the patient is criminal they started behaving badly towards him. So this affected patient’s treatment.
In conclusion I would like to say that profiling patients is not good it affects their treatments, and even other staff members’ behavior toward such patient. These is un ethical, so awareness has to be made to professions about the negative impacts of bad profiling /labelling patients. And more research should be done on how to avoid this attitude of profiling the patients.
By Godzwana Hulisani
References:
Gelfand, S. (2003). Comment on the? fibromyalgia? label: More cons than pros. Arthritis & Rheumatism, 49(1), 144-144. doi: 10.1002/art.10917
Pamela, j. (2014). Patient Profiling: Are You a Victim? [Image].
Patient Profiling: Are You a Victim? | Pamela Wible MD. (2019). Retrieved 14 August 2019, from https://www.idealmedicalcare.org/patient-profiling-are-you-a-victim/
Woolfolk, A., Woolfolk, R., & Wilson, G. (2007). A rose by any other name . . .: Labelling bias and attitudes toward behavior modification. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 45(2), 184-191. doi: 10.1037//0022-006x.45.2.184
4 thoughts on “why those names?”
Hey Hulisani, thanks for your post.
Image: I like your choice of image but maybe could you add in a bit more of a link between the image and the text, at the moment the image is relevant however you haven’t explained the image at all. Possibly include things such as “the man looks confused because in reality he isnt a drug addict”, “just by having tattoos doesnt make someone a drug addict” for example just to link the image in a bit more.
Paragraph 1: I really liked how you started off with a question, it draws the reader in. Adding in the definition of patient profiling is also nice just to make sure readers understand your topic.
Paragraph 2: This experience links well with the message you are trying to bring across, and i am sorry you experienced this but i am glad you didnt profile him as the other health professionals did. Instead of saying “burnt patient” maybe say “patient with burn wounds” – it sounds a bit more professional. Just a few more grammar errors to note: after you greeted him “he asked me WHY i WAS there to treat him” then at the end of the sentence “he asked me IF I WAS not afraid of him?” or you can put it in direct quotes as “he asked me, “are you not afraid of me?””. I liked how you added in a little reflection how this can affect a patient so much they dont want treatment, but possibly add in the consequences of a burn wound patient not wanting treatment? just to show how important treatment is and even a few days of missing physio can affect them physically in terms of mobility.
Paragraph 3: Good use of references and i liked how you included an explanation of the negative impact of patient profiling. Just check your sentence construction in general in this paragraph.
Conclusion – a good conclusion with a clear message of the need to stop patient profiling. Maybe add in a few possibly ways from your own experience, if you had any, to prevent such profiling or ways to educate the other professionals to not profile?
– Jess Funston
thank you Jess for your feedback.i made changes to what you suggested i should do.
Hi Hulisani,
Thanks for sharing your clinical experience. It was a topic that I can relate towards and can also see the effects that profiling has on a patient as well as their attitude and compliance towards their treatment and therapists.
The 1st 2 terms that really stood out to me in your introduction was “misunderstood” and “unfair treatment”. I also really enjoyed seeing how you continued to expand on the link between how one’s perception can affect the quality of one’s treatment as well.
In your personal clinical experience, I can see how the above problem which you painted has made your working capacity more challenging. I can see how the perceptions of other people in your multi-professional team impacts the patient directly in an emotional and psychological way and I agree that poor profiling can lead to a negative result. You mentioned that labeling an individual may lead towards self-fulfilling prophecies and stigmatization which I believe may exaggerate the reality of a situation. Like your burns patient for instance. I agree that it may be unethical because there are many perspectives in which your patients actions can be seen and there could be many events leading up to and impacting his actions. It is a topic that all health care practitioners should be aware of and talk more openly about to prevent further incidences.
Although you were able to link a very suitable clinical experience to your topic of patient profiling, I would suggest that you try to emphasize the imagery more so in a sense that your reader can relate better with the message you’re trying to put across. By looking at the picture, your reader should be able to see beyond the labeling and relate better with the patient as you describe the emotional and psychological effects that patient profiling creates. Other than that, great writing piece.
– Mashardo Esbend
thank you Esbend for feedback.