Today’s articles in the NY Times series, Being a Patient, examine how hospitals shift people into patients and ways patients can remind staff of their humanness. Although people with headache aren’t hospitalized frequently, some headache clinics use in-patient programs to try to break pain cycles and horrendous ER stories abound.
The first article, In the Hospital, a Degrading Shift From Person to Patient, describes staff behavior that dehumanizes patients and how chronic pain patients’ perceptions are altered by pain.
Essential but Uncommon Knowledge: Patients Have Many Rights. Just Ask. details the rights that all patients have and what role they have in getting their own needs met. This article requires registration.