How to Deal with Non-Compliant Patients
The term non-compliant patient refers to someone who does not take medicine according to prescription or fails to follow the prescribed course of treatment. The failure to comply can sometimes occur because the patient refuses to adhere to instruction by a healthcare provider.
It is difficult to deal with non-compliant patients due to the frustration of trying to help someone who has no concern about the effort and danger of failing to take medication according to prescriptions. Those who are not careful can lose their professionalism and rationality making it even harder to convince a patient on the need of compliance. An individual who is non-compliant feels more powerful and in control of the verbal interaction if the caregiver becomes emotional.
1.How to Deal With Non-Compliant Patients
The first thing by a professional who is dealing with a non-compliant patient is to make the person understand the dangers of deviating from instructions by a medic. It is a bonus to make the person comply. These approaches guide professionals to deal with non-compliance.
2.Determine the reason for non-compliance
It is simpler to find a solution for a patient has a reason for failing to comply than someone who is adamant. Nursing is a resourceful profession and the training together with experience can yield to alternative solutions. Here are the frequency reasons for failing to comply with medical instructions that enable a nurse to determine if a non-compliant patient requires help or is just stubborn.
- Failing to get proper education and does not understand the medical issue and risks that might occur after failing to comply
- A condition in the patient like a mental condition or hearing disability that causes misunderstandings
- A patient does not have the money or insurance to pay for recommended tests, medications and treatments
- A patient thinks that treatment is uncomfortable, painful, embarrassing or a cultural taboo.
- Forgetting
Other patients will stretch patience because they fail to comply deliberately and are unlikely to meet for these additional reasons:
- A habit of stubbornness without care for explanations that medical staff provide
- Lack of faith or trust in the health care facility, diagnosis and treatment.
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After determining the reason for non-compliance, these steps will help to manage the patient especially when failure to comply was a stubborn action.
3.Maintain rationality
It is essential to stay rational because losing your cool will cause a power struggle that does not guarantee a win by persuading the patient to change. An increase in frustration and irrationality by a professional makes the non-compliant patient more stubborn.
4.Explain the directive
Sometimes it might be wrong to assume that a patient knows the meaning of medical instruction. It might be that the person does not understand and deserves the benefit of a doubt by clarifying the importance of a medical directive.
5.Place responsibility at the rightful place
The responsibility for refusing to comply with medical directions should lie with the patient, and a caregiver should not agree to shoulder the burden. For instance, a patient can insist on knowing the ways that a nurse can use to cause compliance. It is essential to inform him that there is no action to enforce submission but explain the medical consequences of failing to take medications or treatment and then he will carry the blame for the inaction.
6.Set reasonable limits
Some non-compliant patients want to test the ceiling to see if the healthcare provider will budge and change the original instructions on medication and treatment. Setting reasonable limits and consequences is essential. The person will think that nothing will happen if he limits are unreasonable. You should be ready to enforce some results when setting the boundaries. The action could be something simple like telling the patients to leave the room, or you get help to remove them if they are not going to comply with treatment or medication recommendations. Enforcing the limits makes it simple to manage such persons in future because they know you will take action if they are unreasonable.
Charting and documenting when dealing with a non-compliant patient is very crucial because it will provide evidence if there is a future inquiry about a failure to complete treatment. It feels great when those who know how to deal with non-compliant patients succeed in changing their attitudes. However, it should not be a reason for self-blame when patients choose not to comply after an explanation on the need to change their stubbornness.
