respant
n.— «Do not be what the word “patient” implies, a submissive sufferer. Be what I call a “respant,” a responsible participant, in your care.» —“To combat surgical errors, ‘team’ needs to stay vigilant” by Bernie Siegel in Woodbridge, Connecticut USA Today Apr. 24, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A nurse in Jacksonville, Florida, finds that, without even being aware of it, she takes on the accent of her patients, and she wonders whether that’s because she’s in a profession where she needs to make strong connections quickly with people who...
Gila in Woodridge, Connecticut, wonders if there’s a connection between the adjective patient, meaning able to withstand delay, pain, or problems, and the noun patient, meaning a person who is sick. Both derive from Latin adjective patientem...