the physician ask a girl to take the drug with cold water, but the mother said that they use warm water in their country, what will the doctor do next?
behavioral science question
- Thread starter match2011
- Start date
hmm..this is my take: does using the warm water affect the drug in any way? if it doesn't, then let them use the warm water. But if taking the drug with warm water is bad, then you wanna educate the patient about the effect and why she has to use cold water
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2010
- Messages
- 35
- Reaction score
- 0
Interesting. Where on earth did this question come from? What does Water temperature preference have to do with behavioral medicine for that matter?
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2005
- Messages
- 15,463
- Reaction score
- 1,908
I bet its something about cultural competency. The answer is probably something about ask them about their ways of taking medicine and why they do it that way.
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2007
- Messages
- 1,356
- Reaction score
- 16
Here's a real life correlate of that. I once saw a pt (teenage girl) on the psych ward who absolutely refused to take her med.
Her nurse for that day got into an argument (read: power struggle) with her over it, she started crying, etc. The situation was escalating.
I forgot who ended up doing this-- but someone thought to ask her "so... why don't you want to take the pill?" And it turns out she had an issue where it's hard for her to swallow large pills.
Sliced the pill in 1/2 & she was able to take it. No struggle.
It was just fascinating how caregivers often forget to ask simple Qs like that. Pts and ppl in general have reasons for why they do what they do... and sometimes knowing the reasoning makes a huge difference.
Another example is one I heard in class-- pt (old woman) is depressed. Why is the pt depressed? She's depressed because she's unable to go to church any more.
Why can't she go to church? Because she can't sit through the service without running to the bathroom multiple times. Turns out she's on a diuretic for heart issues. Tell the patient it's ok to change the timing of when she's on her meds. Problem solved.
Another doc might've just started her on an anti-depressant. Big difference, eh?
