Acute asthma: treatment and outcome of 2000 consecutive pediatric emergency room visits in Doha, Qatar

Caring for a "difficult patient" is a concern frequently communicated among nurses and reported in the clinical and research literature. A theoretical perspective explaining the phenomenon of difficult patients is proposed and is based on a reformulation of propositions from labeling theory and the concept of social deviance. Applications to nursing practice focus on patient characteristics judged as deviant by nurses, communication of the deviant label, and exclusionary and inclusionary reactions to perceived patient deviance.