Reviews for the lecture: Dealing with Difficult Patients

from the Virginia Osteopathic Medicine Spring 2021 CME Conference:

  • A very necessary topic. Thank you for sharing!

  • Always a hard subject but thank you for a helpful lecture

  • As I reflect on the great physicians who have mentored me, they all demonstrate these qualities very well, yet we don't emphasize enough that this is something learned. Thank you!

  • Great lecture very informative and empowering!

  • Great reminder on how to approach difficult patients

  • I will utilize info from this to aide our ED physician staff in dealing with difficult patients

  • The comment that "there are no difficult patients, only challenging patients", this helps bring perspective.  Also, I also personalize my patients, such as "my brother, or my grandma", this is a great help to have compassion and genuine care. Great lecture.

  • Very supportive strategies for managing difficult patients objectively yet compassionately. Thank you!

Appearing at Jefferson Health during Patient Experience Week 2023

Happy patient experience week! It is an absolute privilege to work with strong and caring team members at Jefferson Health! Most days we love our jobs! Sometimes it’s not always easy to be happy and positive as some of the situations we deal with are heartbreaking and emotional. Sometimes the patients and families we come across are struggling with their own emotions and can be scared, angry and have anxiety. Our lecture today from the amazing Joan Sureck Naidorf DO, shared concepts from her book “Changing the way we think about difficult patients” and helped to bring us home with some good messages: 

- sometimes we make things harder by the way we think about it

- we decide how we think, feel and act

-6 unhelpful ways to think (get the book to find out) 

-understanding concepts around why some people act certain ways and not to take it personal

- in order to change our thoughts, we need to be aware of them

-find out what else is true about the patient versus assuming what is true

.. and so many more ! 

Thank you, Dr Naidorf, for your expertise of caring for ED patients as an ED physician and sharing your stories! 

I highly recommend this book as it allows you to be happy in your workplace again- by thinking about things differently!

Tricia Nichols MSN, RN, NEA_BC, CPXP

Director of Patient Experience at Jefferson Health Northeast

On My book: Changing How We Think About Difficult Patients

Message from Adam Lalley MD:

“I've just finished reading your book, and I enjoyed it so much that I found myself trying to stretch it out. I rationed out a chapter each morning before my shifts in the Emergency Department, and I may have to read from them, and in them, again. Busy New York City Emergency Departments are hard, as I'm sure you know, and your book had a very effective blend of empathy, pragmatism and empowerment that I hope will shape my view of patients and of myself as a doctor for the rest of my career.”