Extracted from: http://www.sma.org.sg/smj/3911/articles/3911me1.html
2. Handling difficult patients: Patients may have a strong emotional response towards the doctor (transference) and arouse similarly strong responses from the doctor (counter-transference). Underlying these are the patterns of relationships with key people early in the person’s life. For example a doctor may "remind" a patient of his domineering and authoritarian father provoking a hostile reaction. Difficult patients may "unload" their negative emotions onto the doctor (projection) or require persistent reassurance and "downloading" from the doctor. Both reflect the interplay of the needs and psyche of the patient and doctor. More often than not, hostile reactions are not personal attacks but projections of anger towards an accessible and convenient target. Doctors need to avoid becoming receptacles for these and other strong negative emotions by stepping back mentally and asking themselves, "Why am I feeling like this towards this patient?" (and/or vice-versa). Problems occur when doctors go to extremes, either becoming overly concerned and responsible, or angry and abrupt.
Stress in women doctors
"I feel stressed. Most of my energy goes to my work _ treating patients and supervising juniors. The worse things are the workload and the inflexibility. I get back home and my two young children fight for my attention. Sometimes I’m so tired I’m asleep by 8.30pm. I have to come in to hospital almost every day. Squeezing one day’s work into half on Saturday leaves me dead tired when I’m finished. I’m worn out after a few months, but two days of leave refreshes me. I would definitely prefer part time work but it doesn’t seem to be available."
No wonder Dr Lee oso told me before few times she oso feels stressful.
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