Sunday, 19 August 2007
Smokers
My supervisor made a very good point about smokers. Our first thought, even though a bad one, when we read in the notes smoker for 40+ years diagnosed with COPD is that, this is thier fault. My supervisor said that when these pts started smoking they had no idea of the consequences so you do feel sympathetic and this really changes your perspective of the pt. It is the young people who started smoking when the consequences were well known who have no excuse. These are the respiratory pts that we are going to see, so is our attitude going to change (less sympathetic) and will this affect our approach to treating them. I myself think that this is the case and our approach will change. The thought of them doing this damage to themselves will stay at the back of your mind and it will be harder to treat these pts to the best of your ability.
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2 comments:
Hi Dickie
Thats a very good point you made. It has someewhat changed my views about patients who were once chronic smokers. I had always wondered why the older patients with COPD try to educate me to not smoke. I had just thought, well if you knew you wouldn't have started in the first place, but now I will sure take into consideration your little piece of info.
By the way my comment didn't suggest that I smoke at all. I don't! :)
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