Tag Archives: manipulation

Manipulation Defined

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One of the more common complaints that I hear from correctional practitioners (especially new practitioners) is “Manipulative patients are driving me crazy!” To be honest, I ran into a lot of manipulative patients when I worked in the ER, as well. ERs are the epicenter of narcotic drug seeking! But it is true that many of our patients in Corrections are especially skilled in manipulation. They have practiced this skill their whole lives and have become very proficient. Most people, including correctional professionals, are not naturally skilled at dealing with manipulation. This is often not a skill that we have needed before coming to work in a jail or prison. But once there, learning to manage manipulation is an essential skill if you want to be happy in correctional practice. I call the art of dealing with manipulation “Verbal Jiu-Jitsu.” In order to become a skilled practitioner of verbal jiu-jitsu, we must first start with an analysis of what “manipulation” actually is.

Manipulation in a medical encounter occurs when a patient wants something he shouldn’t have and won’t take “No” for an answer. If the patient wants something he should have-no problem! Or If the patient is told “No” and accepts that answer–also no problem!

So manipulation involves these two essential elements:

1. The patient wants something she should not have. This something could be an extra mattress, a special diet, gabapentin, an MRI, a referral off site–anything.

2. The patient does not accept “No” for the answer.

What comes after not accepting “No” for an answer is manipulation. Manipulation is the attempt to coerce the practitioner into changing a “No” into a “Yes.” Manipulation comes in many forms. Continue reading →

The Right Way to Deal with Outside Physicians

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Those of us who practice medicine in jails frequently (Frequently? Daily!) run into the thorny issue of our relationship to the doctors who care for our patients outside of the jail.

When patients are in our jails, we are responsible for them; they are our patients. But these patients also have doctors outside of the jail that perhaps they have been seeing for years. The inmate considers their outside physician to be their “real” doctor, not us. (Throughout this article, I am going to use the term “doctors” rather than the more generic “practitioners.” I do not mean to slight nurse practitioners or physician assistants. What I say applies to them, as well.)

What brought this topic to mind is a case that occurred in one of my jails recently. A patient came to jail with a prescription pad filled out by his outside physician authorizing him to have a double mattress, an extra blanket and an extra pillow. (There was no note requiring us to feed him pizza every Friday night—he must have forgotten to ask for that.) So I was left in a little dilemma. What should I do about this note? Ignore it? Allow the inmate to have the extra comfort items?

Dealing with inmates’ outside physicians can be tricky, but I have found (mostly through sad experience) that there is definitely a right way and a wrong way to handle these encounters. The right way involves recognizing three important points:

Continue reading →