According to Sweet’s God’s Hotel, slow-medicine is a continuum of treatment from medical cure to post-treatment management through which both a doctor and a patient actively cooperate. It aims to provide the patient with a complete cure that not only involves medical recovery but also psychosocial rehabilitation to the utmost degree possible. For such a holistic cure to be obtainable, a doctor’s understanding of both medical condition and psychosocial status of a patient is essential. Therefore, in order to encourage the patient to actively cooperate, Sweet’s slow-medicine can build a positive patient-doctor relationship. However, patients are never subordinated in Sweet’s slow-medicine; they can either agree or disagree to take treatments.
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Therefore, in order to minimize the weakness, doctors should always humbly approach their patients. Sweet’s concept of slow-medicine can be described by four core components which all together aim for a complete cure of a patient: medical treatment, patient-centered medicine, cooperation, and independence. Just like any type of healthcare, Sweet’s (2013) slow-medicine has its foundation on “medical model of care” (p. 379). There is no doubt that all types of healthcare encompass physical procedures to heal the mechanics of human physiology. However, slow-medicine goes beyond sheer recovery of mechanics. The ideal goal of slow-medicine is to address overall causes of the disease, such as social and emotional factors. Just like how Sweet’s (2013) treatment encouraged Terry to break up with Mike to stop her vicious cycle of drug abuse and unhealthy relationship, slow-medicine embraces both physiological and psychosocial cure. Yet, in order to provide such a complete cure, slow-medicine also incorporates patient-centered medicine. As …show more content…
As a healthcare provider, I need to do my best to care for the disease of a patient. In other words, as I am the driving force, I must understand the circumstances that the patient will be after he leaves the clinic. Hence, if I am certain that the patient will not be able to sustain by himself, I must take full responsibility to provide my patient with the maximum complete care possible. For example, as Jimmy’s case show, there are certainly obvious situations where patients need further treatment (Sweet, 2013). This is often the case with patients with psychological disorders. In such case, I would seek cooperation from the patient’s family members to continue my treatment. If the patient has no family, then I may seek for help from ethics committee or medical law department to find reasons to legally justify my treatment and to hopefully persuade my patient to take my treatment. Therefore, learning laws and ways of persuasion will strengthen my relationship with my patients for I have a bit more control to cover up the major weakness of patient-doctor relationship. There may be some people who argue that such persuasion disrespects patients’ autonomy. However, as a healthcare provider, persuasion would be the last step for continuation of my beneficence. In other words,
Therefore, in order to minimize the weakness, doctors should always humbly approach their patients. Sweet’s concept of slow-medicine can be described by four core components which all together aim for a complete cure of a patient: medical treatment, patient-centered medicine, cooperation, and independence. Just like any type of healthcare, Sweet’s (2013) slow-medicine has its foundation on “medical model of care” (p. 379). There is no doubt that all types of healthcare encompass physical procedures to heal the mechanics of human physiology. However, slow-medicine goes beyond sheer recovery of mechanics. The ideal goal of slow-medicine is to address overall causes of the disease, such as social and emotional factors. Just like how Sweet’s (2013) treatment encouraged Terry to break up with Mike to stop her vicious cycle of drug abuse and unhealthy relationship, slow-medicine embraces both physiological and psychosocial cure. Yet, in order to provide such a complete cure, slow-medicine also incorporates patient-centered medicine. As …show more content…
As a healthcare provider, I need to do my best to care for the disease of a patient. In other words, as I am the driving force, I must understand the circumstances that the patient will be after he leaves the clinic. Hence, if I am certain that the patient will not be able to sustain by himself, I must take full responsibility to provide my patient with the maximum complete care possible. For example, as Jimmy’s case show, there are certainly obvious situations where patients need further treatment (Sweet, 2013). This is often the case with patients with psychological disorders. In such case, I would seek cooperation from the patient’s family members to continue my treatment. If the patient has no family, then I may seek for help from ethics committee or medical law department to find reasons to legally justify my treatment and to hopefully persuade my patient to take my treatment. Therefore, learning laws and ways of persuasion will strengthen my relationship with my patients for I have a bit more control to cover up the major weakness of patient-doctor relationship. There may be some people who argue that such persuasion disrespects patients’ autonomy. However, as a healthcare provider, persuasion would be the last step for continuation of my beneficence. In other words,