Should you call your patients ‘lovely’?

This doctor thinks not, as the medical note is no place to 'pass judgement on our patients' likeability'
patient older

From the ‘lovely’ 62-year-old Mrs Smith, to the ‘delightful’ Mr Jones presenting with a painful right knee, many GPs have a shorthand way of referring to their nicer patients in their notes and referral letters.

But a US doctor is suggesting these terms have had their day, and it’s time to move on from including an appreciation of a patient’s personality or disposition in their medical notes.