HOSPITAL, PATIENT AND RADIOGRAPHEK 3

It must be remembered that the patient is often in a hypersensitive state

emotionally, and can be hurt and upset by occurrences that may seem to
us trivial. We often find a patient extremely (and to us disproportionately)

grateful for a service that is small. This indicates that some lack of con
sideration towards him may be far more distressing than we realize. He
will usually be readier to give expression to his gratitude than to find
words for his unease, but this does not alter the fact that distress may be
there.In our dealings with him we must bear in mind this susceptibility.
There are two separate aspects of the radiographer with which the
patient will be concerned, and on which he will feel the need of reassur
ance when he is first sent to the X-ray department. To him it is a very
strange department that he must view at best with uncertainty in the first
instance, if not with alarm. He will want to be reassured first of all as to
certain personal qualities in the radiographer; he will want also to be
assured of professional capability.
The personal required are that the radiographer should seem
qualities
sympathetic, understanding, cheerful, and interested in the patient. It is
appreciated that these features are not always readily displayed and often
a conscious effort may have to be made to maintain them. This effort must
be made, however, and as responsible and trained professional people we
should find enough self-control to make it even when it is not easy to do
so. Small details combine to form the total effect made upon the patient.
A smile from the radiographer can go a very long way towards estab
lishing an easy relationship and reducing tension in the patient. Oddly
enough it also reduces tension in the radiographer even when an effort
has had to be made to start the smile. Many radiographers do not smile
at their patients enough, and they fail to realize as they give instructions
to them and bid them come hither and thither that a manner that is meant
to seem efficient too often seems forbidding. A smile removes the impres
sion of sternness.
It find themselves addressed by
is also encouraging to the patients to
name, correctly prefixed by Mr, Mrs, or Miss. The distinction between
Mrs and Miss can be troublesome but it is important, for either group
seem to feel equally indignant when misplaced in the other, and although
the patient may forgive a radiographer for making a mistake about it
once, she will be hurt if the
radiographer is so thoughtless as to continue
in failure to find the proper form.
The use of the name is reassuring because one of the feelings which
trouble a patient when he comes to hospital is a sense of loss of identity
and of loss of control in the direction of his affairs. He feels that he is no