A patient is any recipient of health care services. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, physician assistant, advanced practice registered nurse, veterinarian, or other health care provider.
The word patient originally meant 'one who suffers'. This English noun comes from the Latin word patiens, the present participle of the deponent verb, patior, meaning 'I am suffering,' and akin to the Greek verb πάσχειν (= paskhein, to suffer) and its cognate noun πάθος (= pathos).
Read more about Patient: Outpatients and Inpatients, Alternative Terminology, Patient Satisfaction
Famous quotes containing the word patient:
“The pallor of girl’s brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.”
—Wilfred Owen (1893–1918)
“I am a patient man—always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of repentance; and also to give ample time for repentance.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“Narcissist: psychoanalytic term for the person who loves himself more than his analyst; considered to be the manifestation of a dire mental disease whose successful treatment depends on the patient learning to love the analyst more and himself less.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)