Why our patients need human touch ?

1. WHY OUR PATIENTS NEED HUMAN TOUCH?
DR.T.V.RO MD
Today we the Medical Professionals are blamed by our patients and society, for many bad
reasons, one being Doctors are no longer human, they treat us mechanically, they have no
time to touch us evenwhen we are afflicted with serious illness.They say we are just human
we need the compassion and human touch. There are several reasons to appreciate the
patients feelings and concerns, the science and research proves there are many aspects to
believe, human touch has longer impact on any one even the healthy persons, then why not
our Patients.In recent years, a wave of studies has documented some incredible emotional
and physical health benefits that come from touch. This research is suggesting that touch is
truly fundamental to human communication, bonding, and health. Many studies have
proved human touch has lot of reasons to improve the communication, the great
experiment being A study by French psychologist Nicolas Gueguen has found that when
teachers pat students in a friendly way, those students are three times as likely to speak up
in class. Touch can even be a therapeutic way to reach some of the most challenging
children: Some research by Tiffany Field suggests that children with autism, widely believed
to hate being touched, actually love being massaged by a parent or therapist.Developmental
delay is common in children deprived of normal sensory stimulation – for example, in
premature neonates and some institutionalized children. Touch has emerged as an
important modality for the facilitation of growth and development; positive effects of
supplemental mechanosensory stimulation have been demonstrated in a wide range of
organisms, from worm larvae to rat pups to human infants. I have been following profession
for more than 4 decades we had Great teachers, majority are Humanistic in approach, even
when the patient was leaving the ward, they assured the recovery of the patients with
human touch to say good bye and used to say see you soon,even to the serious patients,
when the time was limited to survive, in view of the seriousness of the Disease, many
incurable patients lived in hope died shortly. Even the relatives and friends of the patients,
used to cometo inform the death of his patients, to treating Doctors and nurses, and
thanked for the support to the patients, however the economic and technical advances
made us inhuman we rarely know what happened to our patients the moment he leaves
from our chamber. The major question remains who are our Medical students?Are we
simply selecting the wrong people for medical colleges? Or does the rigorous training that
ensues during the residency years generate an emotional egress of what attracted us to this
principled and honourable profession in the first place: to relieve the suffering of a fellow
human being, be it physical, social, spiritual, or emotional?In India Majority of early
residency programmes have collapsed where the young doctors entering profession are
busy with studying for all sorts of entrance examinations, to get Post graduate seats. The
early stage of the interns are lost with tensions and ambitions to become a post graduate
student, even they lost ideas about the miracles of human touch, in reality many seniors are
missing with their own private consultation the young Doctors are really left alone to

2. survive. I request you to read my article on WWW. SLIDESHARE.COM,Internists
On
duty – a Night too long. Today we hear of several incidences of attacking the hospitals
when the matters are left to the most ill experienced people in the Profession and patient
dies.Many patients are looked mechanically an objects for treating with mechanical skills
and diagnostic parameters. The question raises as medicine become such a business that
the human factor has been relegated to the trash? Has the paucity of autonomy or even a
falling income usurped the humanistic qualities of our worthy profession? Could it be that
we lack empathic and compassionate mentors to plant humanistic seeds among young,
impressionable physicians? The most frequent comments from patients concern the
attitude of physicians, the most common reasons for lawsuits have some link with the
physician's attitude. Pain is identified as the most important factor in life of many patients, if
the Doctors attend the patients in crisis with pain as in accidents, and cancer, I think it is
utmost important, just giving injection to kill the pain is not going to heal the malady,
however it has to be supported with humanistic approach, the most important part of
cancer care is human touch, the rest is assured the patient knows that he is going to die very
soon, never forget he knows well that you cannot cure him. I find many highly qualified talks
very blunt to patients, that he cannot do anything to his illness ever forget the power of
placebo of touch.The placebo effect may be unexplained, but it is very real; in the field of
headache, it averages 40 percent. That means that 40 percent of pain relief is not due to the
medication and very likely relates to the attitude of the caregiving Physician, If I look back at
my class mates, who were poor in studies, majority of times back benchers become very
successful doctors with simple human touch, and listening to the Human emotions never
forget they made lots of money. The Government hospitals are becoming symbols of
poverty and treating the poor, and medico legal cases, and majority of destitutes as no body
bears their burden have excellent Doctor, however they can do little with available
resources.And the privatization has taken the major role with starting of many Medical
Colleges and Institutes, as Today, costs and liability concerns have taken the human touch
out of medical care, and general practitioners can’t get into the hospital to see patients.
Hospitalists work for the hospital, not for the patient.My many years of experience in
Medical Profession made me to understand the art of medicine and the power of human
touch are to be blended for successful results. Occasionally, when listening to a patient’s
frustrations about a previous encounter with another doctor or healthcare provider, they
would mention, “and he never even touched me.” They reach out from the sick bed
to make contact with some other Doctor in a plea for help, as if they will not be taken
seriously until they transfer their tacit need by touch, this request not confirmed until we
touch back. Just reassure the patient, tell I will care for you. I will try to give a little spark of
life to you, today we do not teach this in medical college, Our Medical colleges, medical
teachers, and administrators should go back to aspects of civilization how human touch,
compassion, made the animal in man to human nature. Never forget we the Doctors are
potential patients tomorrow with many stresses and challenges, try to create better

3. Hospitalsof tomorrow with human Touch. It's not easy calculating the value and quality of
the doctor-patient relationship, but just because it's not easy doesn't mean that it should be
neglected- and until we actually start incorporating this measurement into all clinical
encounters, we will never be able to fix our ills in the healthcare system, or else it is pay for
the service and no longer Doctors are healers of the disease?
Dr.T.V.Rao MD Professor of Microbiology Freelance writer
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