The Hospital Handshake

Today, during my psychiatry rotation, a awfully grateful patient confronted my attending and thanked him profusely for saving him. The patient had been severely depressed and was at his wit's finish before they met. The doctor listened to him, analyzed his scenario, and came up with an idea to help including involving the patient' family moreover as using correct medication. The patient had a good response to this and now wished to precise this to my attending. thus entered the 'hospital handshake.'

After spending enough time within the hospital, I even have come to the conclusion that it's a dirty place. This was not an epiphany that I experienced; rather, it's just an easy conclusion once seeing/experiencing the dirtiest elements of individuals throughout the hospital. I've even seen a psych patient throw his own feces at his roommate as a result of he 'didn't just like the way he was looking at him.'

Therefore, when the grateful patient offered his hand to the doctor to shake as a symbol of being thankful, I may form of perceive why the attending hesitated for a second. it was not just the hesitation that tickled me. As we were leaving the ground, the attending walked out of his way to douse his hands in hand cleanser.

A lot of individuals could have found that action as perfectly reasonable. especially in this day and age in which around every corner you switch there's a symbol regarding washing hands and stopping infection. And to add to that, I had to finish a form upon starting the rotation that quizzed me on the correct length of time of hand washing (it's fifteen to 20 seconds if you are curious). However, the attending and that i each knew that we were simply heading back to the psych floor where we were aiming to continue our conversation regarding his recent trip to India. There would be no spread of infection (there was no reason to believe this patient had an infection anyway) to other patients.

I don't bring this up as a result of I even have a haul with hand washing once physical contact with patients; really, i think it's a nice habit to induce in to. I bring it up as a result of the scene struck me as borderline disrespectful to the patient.

Imagine this, you go to your parents house for Thanksgiving. it has been months since you've got seen them and your father has still not thanked you for helping him with a medical problem that he'd been addressing. He remembers that he forgot to tell you how grateful he was, thus he elaborates his appreciation as you greet each other. He finishes by giving you a stern, fatherly handshake to demonstrate how strongly he feels. in this explicit case, neither your father nor yourself have any signs of an infection. Despite this, you walk past him to the nearest lavatory to clean your hands (for fifteen to 20 seconds, of course).

Is this something your father would take offense to? If that was my child, i would feel like he just took my sign of appreciation and smacked me within the face with it. therefore why is this not the case when a patient wants to shake the hand of the caregiver that had such a profound result on their life?

In this explicit interaction with the attending and patient, I did not understand the attending as respecting the patient. From the hesitation to shake his hand to cleansing the physical contact from himself once he turned from the patient, the attending came upon as cold and uncaring.

My fear is that this lack of respect can be extrapolated to all patients. this could be even more prominent on an inpatient psychiatry floor in which many patients do not have a firm grasp on reality. can I soon notice myself losing respect for patients; declining handshakes and ignoring their displays of gratitude? I hope not.