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In reply to the discussion: I have a patient on my schedule today who is a heavy smoker. Complaint: "Lungs are hurting." [View all]Aristus
(66,328 posts)9. I know it can seem like a value judgment.
But it's simply a case of wanting a patient to draw a straight line from A to B. She knows why her lungs are hurting. She doesn't need me to tell her that.
She just wants me to fix it with something other than 'quit smoking'.
And every medical provider knows how hard it can be to quit smoking; even the ones, like me, who are life-long non-smokers. We read the medical literature regarding nicotine and addiction.
But people quit every day and stay quit. It requires commitment, and not everyone is willing to devote the necessary level of it.
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I have a patient on my schedule today who is a heavy smoker. Complaint: "Lungs are hurting." [View all]
Aristus
Nov 2018
OP
I am of the view that people in medical services should refrain from value judgements
still_one
Nov 2018
#5
Illustrating cause and effect, that B is a direct consequence of A, is not a value judgement.
LanternWaste
Nov 2018
#14
"Couldn't you prescribe some cocaine and heroin to help me forget cigarettes?"
struggle4progress
Nov 2018
#19
Practically speaking, what can you do for lungs that hurt in someone who
Eliot Rosewater
Nov 2018
#51