What I Wish My Doctor Really Knew: The Voices of Patients With Obesity

Ann Fam Med. 2020 Mar;18(2):169-171. doi: 10.1370/afm.2494.

Abstract

Few health care professionals receive comprehensive training in how to effectively help their patients with obesity. Yet patients are often wanting, needing, and looking for help when they go to the doctor. We, as a group of patients with obesity, share our common experiences and needs when going to the doctor from a place of honesty and hope, with the assumption that clinicians want to know what their patients really think and feel. Our "wish list" for a treatment plan may represent an ideal, but our hope is that our language will speak to clinicians about how they can help their patients manage their obesity.

Keywords: competencies; obesity management; patient voice.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Goals
  • Humans
  • Obesity / psychology*
  • Obesity / therapy
  • Patient Care Planning*
  • Physicians / psychology*
  • Professional-Patient Relations*