How long does it take to greet patients?

It saddened me to see that the specialists and other doctors in the Hospital Putrajaya to not to greet their patients well.This is usually seen during the ward rounds.You can hardly see them greet and aknowledge their patients.All they do is straight away discuss the problems, complications, treatment plan etc among themselves, although the patient is staring, waiting helplessly in front of them.Sometimes its quite funny to see that it is the patients who greet the specialists.There is no doubt that these specialists are brilliant and talented people.They are always busy due to their tight schedule.But, is it so difficult to say Hi, or give salam and say How are you today?How long would it take? 5 minutes?? No it only takes only a few seconds.I just would like to remind myself and to those future doctors out there that our job is not treating the diseases only, but treating the patient as a whole.I always here that the HOs mention the patient by their diseases."Hey Timah, boleh tak ko check kan patient yang ada paralytic ileus tu, aku busy la" .I mean like...helloo...tak payah laa sampai macam tu skali kan?
Few patients have actually asked me "Doktor ( altho I am not a doctor yet but they insist of calling me by the title 'Dr' ), saya ni sakit apa sebenarnye?" Can you believe that? The patients dont even know what they are suffering from.Where is the human touch? One of the ways of relieving the pain and the suffering of patients is actually verbally treating them well.Try to talk to them.Make them laugh.Listen to their stories about their family, their work ,their children, their hobbies etc. So far, it helped me in doing my task.I felt easier to clerk their history, do physical examination ( Per rectal examination included!) as they become more confident towards you.They trust you more.They know that you are there to help them.
I am currently doing my second Long case.It's about a 74 y.o Malay lady with the history of colon cancer.She was admitted to the ward due to epigastric pain with jaundiced.Due to the history, the doctors suspected of liver metastases and porta hepatis lymphadenopathy.It later confirmed with ultrasound and she will be referred to Hospital Selayang ( The Liver and Gallbladder specialist hospital).That makcik was very cheerful and comel( admitted by my other colleagues themselves)
I helped one of the HO to do wound dressing on an open book fracture of the pelvis due to motor vehicle accident.This patient had a big hole at his right upper buttock.The wound needs to be cleaned every other day.It was not easy as I had to wash the wound with saline, hydrogen peroxide and do suction.It was first my time and it was a good experience.Managed to assist in doing the Vacuum-assisted Closure(VAC).The surgical ward MO, Dr Zamaq asked me to learn and by next week, he wants me to do the dressing myself.Adeker????Dah gile ape?
Other than that, I clerked a few patients today and did some physical examination on them.I really like this one patient, where she was really cooperative.I totally respect her as she told us that she will helped us by telling her problems.She even let us to do PR to her.She work only as a cleaner.Why cant the doctors be as kind as her.
Hmm ok, gotta go.Long case under progress ...............