If there’s one thing that gets me down, it’s a speech therapist who wants to get rid of the patient quickly.
The sad truth is that we are used to dealing with unethical health professionals on a daily basis. A good example of this is making an appointment for 2 p.m., working hard to get time off work and arriving at the office before the scheduled time and being seen by 4:30 p.m. – if you’re lucky, that is. While you’re waiting, you notice the horrible antics of the secretary, who schedules appointments every 10 minutes. Come on, I don’t want a 10-minute consultation with any doctor. Where has it been established that, if a person makes an appointment through their health insurance plan (not cheap, by the way), their time limit in the presence of the ‘doctor’ is 5 to 10 minutes and that’s it? In fact, where has it been established that we have to tolerate this kind of behavior from professionals just because they are ‘health professionals’? I think people tolerate it just because they’re in a fragile situation.
I live in a university town, where there is a federal university, the
UFSM
. No one here talks about it openly, but several professors at UFSM who are full-time also have practices. I confess that I don’t understand how nobody reports this. Because it’s disrespectful both to the institution’s students (I’ve lost count of the stories I’ve heard of professors who never showed up to lecture because they were at the office) and to the clients having tea in their waiting rooms.
Back to the point, speech therap ists can’t be in a hurry. You and your disability are there, completely ‘naked’ in front of him, crying out for a light at the end of the tunnel. How can you put your health and mental sanity in the hands of someone who wants to ‘solve the problem on the fly’? Be wary of a professional who asks you to put up with pain, to make you like a sound you can ‘t stand. Above all, be wary of anyone who wants to close the deal too quickly. Anyone who doesn’t have the degree of sensitivity, delicacy and patience needed to deal with hearing loss (and its terrible practical consequences for the patient’s social life) should work in another field. Don’t hesitate to change speech therapists if you think it’s necessary.
I receive several emails every week from readers complaining about the lack of patience and ethics of their phonos. Yes, they’re wrong, but I think it ‘s up to us to change this pattern of behavior. When a patient leaves, they may not even feel it, but I guarantee that when the tenth one says goodbye, they’ll rethink their attitudes.
I’ll say it again and again: a speech therapist is not a businessman. Hearing aids make a lot of money for those who work with them – and their return, in terms of dedication to patient satisfaction, should be proportional to that. It’s the minimum acceptable.
**I’m not saying that a speech therapist should spend two hours with a single patient. We know that they are working, have families to support, etc. I’m talking about the quality of the time he devotes to the patient, the quality of his care, his concern for the health and well-being of those who give him their health and trust blindly in his work.
*** This link contains an article about a teacher from Ceará who is being sued by the MPF for not respecting exclusive dedication. It’s worth a read.
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