Hi,
i'm trying to find a newspaper article or some research that suggests that doctors should not establish rapport with their patients. Does anyone know where there's one on the internet? I've looked EVERYWHERE!!! Its for psychology A-level stuff, thanks
xxxx

sounds like a potty idea to me....
Sure, doctors shouldn't either fall in love with patients or encourage patients who appear to be falling for them, but how on earth is communication supposed to happen if there isn't some sort of understanding?
Are you sure this has been published somewhere? Have you tried the usual suspects, ie the various medical and psychology journals, or do you think it's more likely to have been in the popular press?
Certainly a quick hunt just now only returns articles about how important such rapport is....

don't get me wrong i think ist stupid too rapport is essential in order for doctors to gain trust from patients and to establish some kind of relationship. My psychology teacher wants us too find one but i don't think its exists!

I agree with anacrusis - what a daft idea!

You'll find lots of articles on the doctor-patient relationship (based openness, trust etc) - can't see how that'll work unless some sort of rapport is established!

I agree too!

i'm hoping theres some stupid psychologist somewhere who doesn't believe in rapport or its going to look like I haven't done my homework!

No it won't - just print off this thread. After all you've made enquiries of a body of professional people from various walks of life, including some doctors, and if we've all come up with nothing, then just maybe there's nothing to be had!

I'm not a psychologist or a medic (although my mother is, and I'll ask her about it when she gets home tonight), but have you tried Googlebooks and Googlescholar? It's not the fastest method of research in existance, and you have to keep adjusting your search terms to find what you're looking for, but if it's out there, it'll be on one or the other. Most books and papers will be on limited preview (ie you can only see a couple of pages) but it can be a very useful place to start, because once you've found the books/papers on there you can find them elsewhere 'in the flesh' as it were.

It seems almost deliberately difficult to begin with, but I can recommend persevering with it - I did my undergraduate dissertation on a rather obscure subject (representations of the spider in Navajo, Hopi and Sioux myth) and relevant books were (very) few and far between - even the British Library was at a loss when I contacted them - but via Googlebooks I found enough to get it done.

Good luck!

Maybe this is an oblique way of getting you to say why it is so important for doctors to establish a rapport with their patients - ie there is plenty of evidence to support this, and no plausible counter-arguments?

I suspect it is - a favourite trick of a lot of university tutors is to give students a nonsensical or obviously silly statement as a title, on the grounds that, in disproving it, they learn about the opposing (and usually prevalent) viewpoint. I was once given an essay title about skyscrapers in New York that stated:

"Few of the skyscrapers were architecturally distinguished in themselves. It is not an architectural vision but it does, most tremendously, look like business."


If you know the first thing about the importance of skyscrapers in not only architectural developments, but the place they have in the American psyche, you know that's nonsense. I certainly know it's nonsense having spent 2500 words arguing against it and, yes, trying and failing to find sources that support it

If it's very important, can you find an article about the importance of professional boundaries? If you find an article about the importance of emotional detachment, and not getting too involved, it could surely be argued that, although certain types of rapport are certainly necessary, taking it too far is a bad idea.

I bet there are loads of articles on the immorality of involvement with patients etc. I know that's not what rapport actually means, but I bet you could create an argument, if you wanted to, redefining the word.
Does your library have a Jstor account? That's my lazy way of providing evidence for some of my essays. Good luck!

I agree - try looking for something about the negative effects of empathising too much e.g. emotional burnout, like here:
http://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article...stitial/262/262

I am a medic and there is a ton of stuff that discusses types of rapport, often in relation to boundaries. You might find Gabbard's work useful and there continue to be Balint groups that provide structured reflection for doctors thinking about their emotional response to patients. Salinsky has written well on the topic and there are also examples in my own field (paediatrics) of papers that suggest aligning oneself too closely with parents can have implications, albeit rare, for child protection. I think you might also like to look at the related literature on 'the consultation' - Neighbour is good on that. Hope that helps.