Difficult Patients

Last week I had to deal with a difficult patient for the first time. He was extremely rude to me from the start due to mis-communication with scheduling. Thankfully I have wonderful class mates who came to my rescue when they overheard the way he was speaking to me. I tried my hardest to make him understand what had happened and that it was school policy to update his medical history, but he didn't want to hear anything I said to him. I thought if I encountered this situation I would be able to handle it on my own, but being put in that situation it made it clear to me that we need to discuss how to deal with unhappy patients.After giving myself a few days to cool off about the situation I spoke with Mrs. Casella about it. She gave me great advice that I think needs to be told to all students. "If a patient refuses to go over their medical history with you and speaks to you in an aggressive or aggravated manner you should get faculty if reasoning with them does not work. She said the patients need to understand that when they sign to be a patient at the school you accept that you are going to be in the chair for three hours and that we are here to learn. It's the law that we take vitals and update the medical history every time they sit in our chair, even if you saw them the day before. She also stated that" if they don't comply with the updates then they should be dismissed from the school." I will not let this patient defeat me so I made sure to schedule him with me in the next few weeks. I now have a better understanding on how to deal with these types of patients and will be better prepared for the next one.