Ignorance is bliss means that sometimes it is better if you do not know all the details of a situation. And sometimes it truly is, but in the clinical setting : Ignorance is not definitely not bliss. Not at all.  More often we have encounters with people or patients in the clinical setting who are unaware about their past or current health conditions when asked about their medical history. They tend to not ask a lot of questions, although some may do but it is not fully answered by their medical team. Why is that?  Health care in South Africa may be a little faulty. With this being said, there might be too many patients and too little time for the health care professionals to ensure that each patient’s questions are addressed. Often, patient’s are not aware of their medical conditions due to practitioners not having enough time or empathy to address it as they should. In addition, people often feel more like “patients” than people thus resulting in them not taking responsibility for their health by not asking questions which leads to them just accepting their situations.

In the clinical setting, empathy allows us to bridge the divide between patients and clinicians by sharing an experience (Mhmedicalcom, 2019). By allowing the patient to be active in the management of their health, treatment outcomes may be significantly better than it would be with a patient who is not involved. This is due to the fact that there is an understanding of the condition and the reasons as to why a certain impairment needs attention. Not only is this beneficial for the treatment aspect of management but allowing the patient to be involved improves trust between patient and health care practitioner.  We often have to build up trust with the patients and once trust is there, patients start to open up more about their feelings and questions which allow us to treat a patient holistically (eg: referring patients). In the clinical setting I have worked with people, more specifically people with physical disabilities, who are not entirely sure why they look a certain way or why exactly they need physiotherapy. As a student, it becomes uncomfortable when a patient has not been properly educated on their health or on the implications of certain conditions which puts one in a rather awkward position as I was not entirely sure where to start the conversation. This was the first time in my clinical experience that I was asked such a question: “I am aware that the are people who look like me (who have physical disabilities) and people who are able bodied like you. But I am struggling to accept the fact that I look like this because I don’t know why. No one has ever explained this to me.” The physiotherapist in me could answer the question as to why physiotherapy was needed but my explanation lacked the information the patient was searching for. This was not because I did not have knowledge on the condition but rather lacked the ability to empathise the situation. I was more upset about the patient informing me that no one has educated him on his condition. Ever. I had a few questions as to how I should approach this. Should I educate him on his condition and the implications thereof right there and then. Or do I speak to the clinicians to involve the patient’s parents , as the patient is still a minor. The question on whether the patient’s parents were educated on the matter also came up. Was this a matter of the parents’ fault, health care professionals or both. This incident made me question the health care system as well as the relationship between the health system and patient/client. Is it okay for patients to just accept their condition without understanding it? According to the National Patient’s Rights Charter, it is not.

References
Mhmedicalcom. (2019). Mhmedicalcom. Retrieved 19 August, 2019, from