Q 2:
A patient who was gravely ill was saved by me, the doctor, and the patient want to give me a gift, in form of an overseas holiday as a sign of gratitude. How should I react to this? The patient says that he absolutely must do something for me to repay me, so it would seem difficult to reject the offer.
Ans:
If you are a doctor, you help people because you want to. If you accept this gift, you might start to subconsciously expect other patients to offer you gifts as well for your services. It a personal choice you, but with gifts people always feel indebted and it can change the relationship between patient and doctor or co-workers, etc. One suggestion might be to find a charity you can have the gift donated to - this way the patient can feel happy and that they repaid you and you can feel good about helping those in need without creating a sense of always expecting gifts for your services. In the long run I think you will like you job more for the good work that you do and not distract yourself with thoughts of gifts from patients.
