girl in greenwood

Ooh, interesting. One thing we talked about a lot in school is that labeling your patients as "drug-seeking" or "lazy" or what-have-you affects not only the care you provide, but the care that those around you think is appropriate to provide as well. "Manipulative" is one of those words, but I hadn't really thought about it before. Honestly, I had thought that some patients are in fact manipulative, so why not call a spade a spade?

Then I read this piece from Maria. Here's a quote:

"Consider striking the word “manipulative” from your vocabulary. Just describe what people are doing. “She says that she will kill herself if I don’t give her Vicodin” is a lot more informative than “She’s manipulative”. Furthermore, brainstorming ideas and conferring with others (including the patient) to solve this dilemma is much easier when everyone knows the specific details of the dilemma. How does one solve a problem around an adjective?"

Aha! Of course. You can't make a measureable outcome in the care plan for manipulation. :)