Experiences with medical relatives of patients
Recently witnessed some difficult interactions with a patient and their relatives on my ward. The patient was not a doctor, but had a relative who was, and often tried to interfere with and change management plans, despite working in a different specialty.
This made me reflect on my past experiences, and I realised how a disproportionate amount of interactions with medical relatives of my patients have been negative. I still remember as an intern how the son of one of the patients I saw in ED threatened me by saying he used to be a med reg at my hospital and that he would file a complaint against me (didn’t go anywhere as it was unreasonable). I also recall how an ex-nurse partner of another patients was so nasty towards the nurses looking after the patient that a few of them broke down crying.
It’s strange to me because having experienced the pressures of the job, surely they would be more understanding than the average person. Has anyone else had similar experiences?