All I want for the new year is…

Can gift giving change the clinician-patient relationship?

“You should definitely not feel obliged to treat patients differently and not every patient can afford to gift,” explained Gordon. He also noted that sometimes patients could bestow gifts in a manipulative way, although most of the time they are given as a token of appreciation.

Gordon considered other caveats: “social media could blur the clinician-patient boundary; patients could track you down on social media and send you a gift.” The General Medical Council has guidance on maintaining a professional boundary between you and your patient. If you’re in doubt, talk to your colleagues and educational supervisors for a second opinion.

Lily reflected that gifts from patients usually reflect the quality of care that they received and the relationship you built during that period. “When patients gift you something, there isn’t a chain of events where you and your patients are completely neutral, they give you a gift, then suddenly you build this amazing rapport and you treat them better. Gifts tend to come out of a good rapport so nothing changes. Most patients, they’re not trying to gain anything, it’s just a reflection of what you already have.”

Gordon added, “the practice of medicine is a human relationship. In all human relationships, there is giving and taking. To be appreciated for doing my work well is important for the giver and receiver.”

As a junior doctor, Anisha appreciates gifts as “that’s what keeps you going, the little token of appreciation for what you did here and that it is recognised.”

This may be a lesser known fact, but thank you cards can also be included in your portfolios. Gordon, who also appraises doctors for their revalidation, confirmed that “affirmations from patients can be used as evidence that you’re a doctor.”

Giving presents to your colleagues

Cards, chocolates, and even cups of coffee are good options for gifts for your colleagues to show appreciation. Gordon recalled receiving tokens of appreciation from students. It’s nice knowing that young doctors and students have appreciated his teaching efforts, he said.

Anisha reminisced about the time when she brought back souvenirs after visiting her home country: “it’s part of sharing your cultural heritage and this also reinforces friendship and shows that you value the team.”

Gordon added, “small acts of giving really oil the wheels of how we work.”

“I’m going to gratix you”

There are other ways of acknowledging your colleagues and expressing gratitude beyond gifts. Most healthcare professionals know that Datix is a platform where healthcare workers report safety concerns and Gratix does the exact opposite of this. This concept may come under different labels, for example, Laudit2 and Excellent Incident Reporting.

Gordon adopted this idea from Disney. Disney would only respond to letters of complaint or of excellence from the public and not to feedback forms. Gordon set up Excellent Incident Reporting at his hospital where people could gift stories to colleagues for excellent performance. In medicine, it’s easy to overlook the good things that you do in your job and it’s typical of medicine to focus on the negative.

Anisha thought this was a gratifying scheme as “not only is it nice to gift stories to each other, it’s practical to know that you’re doing something correctly during your rotation.”