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Communication and chaos

Palliative care specialist Anna Sonkina-Dorman has seen a lot of suffering and death – and believes that Russian doctors require additional training and a better working environment, so that they may handle difficult cases more sensitively.

“[Doctors] have to be trained in communication,” Sonkina-Dorman told The Moscow News in an e-mailed comment. “We must [also] push for the creation of professional associations and insist on decent working conditions for doctors and nurses.”

Sonkina-Dorman’s sentiments were echoed by Ivan, a Moscow intensive care specialist who asked that his last name not be used for fear of retribution from his bosses.

“The harsh truth is that nobody prioritizes communication training for doctors in Russia, which makes a hard job that much harder,” Ivan said. “This is why it is easier for a medical professional to completely shut out the patients’ relatives, to say, ‘No, you can’t visit, go away,’ and so on.”

According to Ivan, communication training must go hand-in-hand with an official visitation policy for all Russian hospitals. “Right now, heads of departments write their own rules, which are never set in stone to begin with, depending on who’s got the shift,” he said. “A lot of the doctors are just as sick of all of this chaos as the patients and their relatives are, but no one wants to say anything openly, for fear of being labeled a trouble-maker.”

Ivan believes that both medical professionals and laymen in Russia are simply unaware that things can be different. “They have these blinders on – most don’t even realize that it’s been scientifically proven that a child in the hospital physically benefits from having mom and dad around,” he said.

© Courtesy of Marina Desnitskaya

Nikita on the family fridge

Ivan said that his colleagues frequently complain about the fact that Russian patients are nevertheless steadily demanding better quality care, “just like in the West.”

“[Russian doctors] believe that for as long as their work remains un-prestigious – as opposed to in Western countries, where doctors make more money and receive greater respect – they don’t owe anyone anything,” Ivan said. “But when it comes to visitation rights, what does prestige have to do with any of that? Nothing.”

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