Why Patients Fear An EKG
Most medical practitioners tend to forget that patients, regardless of how familiar they are with their diagnosis and prognosis, use medical terms and language that patients don’t understand.
When you send your patients for an EKG test, one needs to remember, especially with older patients that they are hardly familiar with commonly used medical terms. And when the patient does not know what to expect, a simple procedure like an EKG can turn into a traumatic event or can pave the way for unnecessary stress.
It is important for a patient to know that what exactly you or the EKG machine technician will be doing when an electrocardiogram is performed. Further, it is very helpful and comforting to let the patient know that an EKG procedure involves no pain or any discomfort and that the preparation only involves attaching a couple of “plasters” on them. In addition, the majority of patients feel more safe and comforted when they are informed that the actual assessment takes only about 60 seconds after which the EKG machine will print the results immediately on a graphic paper from the machine and that he or she will be able to have the results interpreted by the doctor or cardiologist.
It is also a good idea after you make a diagnosis, to inform the patient as to why you would like to perform or request for an EKG to be performed on them. Most patients think if you request for a EKG test, they are about to die. Few of them are informed that an EKG is used to follow up on an existing heart disease or condition that they might have or to follow up on the prognosis after they suffered a heart attack or when you as the medical practitioner suspect malfunctioning of the heart or a similar condition.
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