COUNSELING THE FAMILY: AN INTERN'S PERSPECTIVE By Ali Maher Hassan On a busy nightshift I was the only intern available, as my supervising physician was deposed with other critical patients. I was immediately called to the triage area for a 48-year-old woman brought in by an ambulance and accompanied by her family. The patient was in acute distress and unable to speak. As soon as her children identified themselves, a panicked question arose: “What’s going on?” I inquired about their mother’s initial presentation and learned that her daughters had found her on the bathroom floor, but no one was sure of what occurred. Once the hospital staff helped shift the patient into the resuscitation bay, I immediately proceeded to check her vitals and assess her level of consciousness while asking a series of questions. In the midst of doing this, her son interrupted me to state, “there is no point in your questions.” Then, in a disgruntled done, he said something about me “being useless” and demanded that I “just give her medication.”
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How many of us interns have encountered an angry or fearful family member or multiple disgruntled family members accompanying a sick relative? Physicians can sometimes be so mired into their work caring for patients that they forget to care for families, thus leaving them feeling unattended to. Family members sometimes attend the emergency department in a state of panic and/or with other strong emotions, which puts a strain on the relationship between family and physician. As we spend more and more time in the emergency department, we eventually realize that this is all too common and recurrent of a theme for which preparation and training is necessary. My encounter with this family in the ED was a steppingstone in my career during which I learned the importance of attending to the families of patients. A family’s disposition in a situation like this one may greatly influence a physician’s professional judgment. Physicians may
