title: Heartsink – patient, doctor or consultation?
abstract: I recently participated in a registrar education discussion about 'heartsink' patients. What is a heartsink patient? O'Dowd appears to have coined the phrase and refers to patients who 'exasperate, defeat and overwhelm their doctors by their behaviour'. He implemented a plan to identify, discuss and actively manage the heartsink patients at his practice and his definition has led to a classification of typical trigger patients and guidelines on how to best manage these patients
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005194:Family Practice / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012878:Skin Neoplasms