Search
Related Links

 

 

Informative Articles

Heart supplements that will energize your body and reduce the side effects of statin drugs.
If your "get up and go got up and went" these heart supplements are just what you've been looking for. If you are taking any of the statin family of drugs such as Lipitor, Zocor or Crestor to lower your cholesterol you should not be without...

I Cured My Arthritis
From the age of 11 to age 53 I avoided holding hands; they were painful to the touch, so puffed up, sore and hot!!! Raising four children, of course, I had to hold their hands. I tried so hard not to let them know how painful it was but, they knew...

Increase Your Production Of Nitric Oxide
The Science Behind Nitric Oxide (NO) Putting your time in at the gym will certainly help you achieve your goals for a more fit looking body. But new research suggests that exercise may also help increase the production of nitric oxide. What Is...

The Last Line of Defense Against Medication Errors: What You Need to Know to Keep your Family Safe
This is a true story. Yesterday, I picked up a new antibiotic prescription for my daughter from my local pharmacy. (We recently adopted my daughter from India where she had recurrent ear infections resulting in severe hearing loss. And,...

The Skinny on Cholesterol
There is always a fair amount of controversy surrounding cholesterol. It's in the news, in our diets, and in our bodies. Let's start with some background. Cholesterol is a molecule that is in the "sterol" family. This family of chemicals are the...

 
How To Talk With Your Doctor And Get Results

Read this article and you’ll learn tips from a nurse who has worked in private practices, clinics, rural, and academic hospitals about how to get the most out of a doctor visit.

1. Appointment.
If something is seriously wrong, BE CLEAR! Tell them if you need to be seen sooner than offered-you’ll probably be surprised, (if you have a real need). Still not satisfied? – Ask the scheduler to check with the nurse or doctor.
Arrive early: don’t be late. (Inside scoop -never told to patients -it is not uncommon to schedule two patients at a time, the earliest gets seen first). Avoid backlog by opting for the first appointment of the day, or the first one after lunch.

2. Limit your chief complaint.
Try to limit your reason to be seen to one issue; tell the appointment scheduler if you intend to discuss issues requiring more time. Don’t try to discuss family planning or a cholesterol treatment plan when they’ve scheduled a brief time for your chief complaint of a sore throat.

3. Be your own detective: identify what is amiss.
Be specific about what you perceive in your body and what evidence you have that something is wrong. Then, be prepared to state what, where, when, how long, what makes it worse, what makes it better, if you have had success treating it and what exact medicines you’ve taken.
For example, “For three weeks I’ve had a burning pain, right here


(pointing to soft space between lower rib cage) especially after I drink coffee, and it is worse when I lie down. It feels better for a little while when I eat or take antacids, and an empty stomach makes it worse.” There you just saved ten minutes of your allotted time and are more likely to receive satisfaction.

4. Answer questions mindfully.
Don’t just agree because it is asked; physicians purposely throw in red herrings to gather information. “Does it hurt behind your eyeballs when you urinate?” a Harvard physician earnestly asks in such situations. If “yes,” patient reports were usually considered suspect and “unreliable historian” was documented in the chart. Be as clear and thoughtful as possible about your answers.

5. “What is the plan?”
Healthcare providers are trained to think ahead. A backup plan should exist for addressing the problem; it may be a follow-up visit with a more aggressive treatment (if the first approach doesn’t work) or, a referral to a specialist. Simply put, expect a plan: if it doesn’t exist, you are not getting good care.

That’s a little inside scoop on how to have a successful visit to your healthcare provider.

About the Author

Cecelia is a registered nurse with years of experience has worked in private practices, clinics, rural, and academic hospitals. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing.

 

National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health
Part of the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine offers access to health information for consumer, patient, and physicians ...
www.nlm.nih.gov
 
Health and Medical Information produced by doctors - MedicineNet.com
Doctor-produced health and medical information written for you to make informed decisions about your health concerns.
www.medicinenet.com
 
Medicine in the Yahoo! Directory
Collection of sites for health professionals, with sections on specific disciplines, organizations, continuing education, conferences, publications, ...
dir.yahoo.com
 
MedlinePlus Health Information from the National Library of Medicine
Health information from the National Library of Medicine. Easy access to Medline and Health topics, medical dictionaries, directories and publications.
medlineplus.gov
 
Medicine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Medicine is a branch of health science and the sector of public life ... The practice of medicine combines both science as the evidence base and art in the ...
en.wikipedia.org
 
Journal Home - Nature Medicine
Nature Medicine has a vacancy for a Locum Assistant Editor for six months. The position involves working in all aspects of the editorial process, ...
www.nature.com
 
The New England Journal of Medicine: Research & Review Articles on ...
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is a weekly general medical journal that publishes new medical research findings, review articles, and editorial ...
content.nejm.org
 
eMedicine Clinical Knowledge Base
eMedicine features up-to-date, searchable, peer-reviewed medical journals, online physician reference textbooks, and a full-text article database in 62 ...
www.emedicine.com
 
Open Directory - Health: Medicine
the entire directory, only in Health/Medicine. Top: Health: Medicine (11429). Description · Medical Specialties (4888); Surgery (2265) ...
dmoz.org
 
the www virtual library biosciences medicine
www.ohsu.edu/cliniweb/wwwvl/ - Similar pages
 
Medicine - home
Bimonthly journal covering the latest results in clinical investigation relevant to hospital and office practice.
www.md-journal.com
 
Institute of Medicine
The Institute of Medicine serves as adviser to the nation to improve health.
www.iom.edu
 
ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News
Medical Research News. Health news on everything from cancer to nutrition. Full-text, images, updated daily.
www.sciencedaily.com
 
Google Directory - Health > Medicine
Search only in Medicine Search the Web. Medicine. Health > Medicine, Go to Directory Home. Categories. Alternative Medicine (6308) Basic Sciences (66) ...
www.google.com
 
the world wide web virtual library biosciences medicine
www.mcb.harvard.edu/biopages/medicine.html - Similar pages
 
PLoS Medicine - A Peer-Reviewed Open-Access Journal
PLoS Medicine is a peer-reviewed, international, open-access journal published ... Every issue of PLoS Medicine contains a selection of readers' responses. ...
medicine.plosjournals.org
 
Medicine On-Line - Medicine Online -The International Medical Journal
Medicine Online - independent and peer reviewed journal published by Priory Medical Journals - priory.com.
www.priory.com
 
Entrez PubMed
PubMed is a service of the US National Library of Medicine that includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 
Stanford University School of Medicine
Home Page of the Stanford University School of Medicine.
med.stanford.edu
 
Medicine OnLine
Meds.com offers medical information and education on cancer (lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, leukemia) and HIV / AIDS for patients, ...
www.meds.com