Expectation of adults and children differs from square one.
Since I started working as a doctor, I have seen patients of all ages.
And there are considerable differences between adults and children already before we go inside my office:
The adult expectations
Expectation of adults and children differs from square one.
The adult expectations might be formulated as:
- Adult patients come in search for help.
They know something is wrong.
And then, they see me to get something fixed.
Often, they have a strong inner motivation to attend the consultation,
because they know that they will profit from it.
Not only that, but they visit me possibly being anxious and at the same time join me in general with a sense of hope for relief.
As a consequence, with this inner story line, adults are willing to grant us trust as a credit.
The doctor is often primarily granted the role of a saviour.
The child’s expectations
Expectation of adults and children differs from square one.
The child’s expectations are quite different:
- A young patient often has no understanding about
- why they are meeting me
- and what is going to happen.
As soon as the child is older than 18 months, the situation is even harder.
They remember the last time when they met the doctors.
What they remember is that at the end of that appointment they got a jab. This bit, they hated it.
So, the child knows from experience
- that doctors cannot be trusted
- and that they might hurt them.
And when we look back at the previous post, we need additionally consider that the child will fear that they come to see me to being judged.
The doctor is the natural enemy, not the saviour.
With this background in mind, it becomes obvious why it is an uphill battle to gain the trust of a child.
Furthermore, it costs an effort for the doctor to help the child to cooperate with us.
Expectation of adults and children differs from square one.
In a nutshell:
To the (paediatric) patient, the doctor is naturally more of an enemy than a friend
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