Lucy Grealy's Autobiography Of A Face

Not everyone is cut out to be a medical professional. Someone considering a medical career needs to not only be smart, but also like people. To be highly successful and well-liked, you need to form strong bonds with your patients because they are relying on you to help them. That includes the fact that they are relying on you to make the best decisions for them while also keeping them well informed about what is going on in their treatment. In Autobiography of a Face, the author and narrator Lucy Grealy recounts her experiences with doctors while being treated for and recovering from cancer. It is hard to deny that the majority of the book demonstrates rather unhealthy doctor-patient relationships because there often is very little reciprocal trust and a most of Grealy’s doctors lack personability. The first step to a favorable doctor-patient relationship is the presence reciprocal trust. The doctor should be able to understand what their patient is telling them and trust that they are being honest. In the same manner, the patient should be able to rely on the decisions made by the doctor and assume that everything that is being done is in the best interest of the patient. One way the doctor can fortify this sense of trust is through a concept known as informed consent. There are two aspects to this concept: the “informed” part and …show more content…
However, the greater part of the book shows a young girl not being treated the way she deserved to be treated by her doctors. Was she physically harmed by this neglect? No, but she still had the right to know and be treated well, just as everyone else in the care of a medical professional has the right to know what they are being subjected