Doctors are highly regarded by the public and so they have to be aware of what they think, speak or do all the time. If there is something that others think is of little importance but for doctors, it may matters if it upsets social attitudes. We hope that other professionals are not so obsessed with this feeling as doctors are.

A word worth mentioning here is ‘patient’ whose meaning is easy to understand and to perform on a superficial level⁽¹⁾. This word, however, means a lot to doctors who have to do their best in taking care of their patients. But in reality, patients and their relatives are often asked to be ‘patient’. What does this word really mean? Do doctors realize what they are asking their patients to do? Doctors know that their patients have to be ‘patient’ so that their doctors will be kind to them. They do not want to irritate their doctors. They want to make their doctors feel at ease and comfortable. No matter how old the patients are or how much experience they have, when they visit a doctor, they have to be humble. They cannot disagree with the doctor when they are in the doctor’s office. If patients do so, the treatment process might be terminated. However, there are patients who are not ‘patient’ with their doctors and who refuse the prescribed treatment. These patients have decided that they will not go to see their doctor again even if they are seriously ill or are going to die. The reason for this cannot be because of the patients’ lack of understanding. We should assume that patients are not balanced in terms of both their physical and mental states. On the other hand, doctors are supposed to be balanced as regards both states; consequently, they should be ‘patient’ when they deal with their patients⁽²⁾.

Keywords: Medical ethics, Patience