Healthcare Providers Need to Communicate Better

It’s not enough for healthcare providers to have excellent diagnostic, treatment, and technical skills. They need to be able to communicate information to their patients and, equally if not even more important, they need to be able to hear and understand what patients are telling them. Communication can be both verbal and nonverbal.

An abstract from the West Indian Medical Journal states, “Extensive research has shown that no matter how knowledgeable the physician might be, if he/she is not able to open good communication channels with the patient, he/she may be of no help to the latter. Despite this known fact and the fact that a patient-physician consultation is the most widely performed ‘procedure’ in a physician’s professional lifetime, effective communication with the patient has been found to be sadly lacking.”

Read on to learn more about how healthcare providers can improve communication skills and thus patient care.

Being Present: Healthcare providers must be able to focus on the patient who is in front of them. They cannot be thinking about the previous patient, their backed-up schedule, or anything else. Any mental distractions will detract from the task at hand, which is being present and available for that patient.

Listening Actively: Active listening is a particular set of skills that help ensure that what’s being heard is what the patient intended to say. The active listening loop includes sending the message, receiving the message, interpreting the message, and providing feedback. All of the steps matter, of course, but the feedback step is the most important. Here, the listener repeats back their interpretation of what the speaker said. This allows the speaker to correct any miscommunications and ensures clarity on both sides.

Showing Empathy: Empathy is more than just sympathy; true empathy shows that the listener has processed what the speaker has said and that the listener is aware of the speaker’s needs. This is especially important when a patient has literally bared their entire self and is feeling vulnerable and perhaps scared. Showing empathy is part of patient care and also helps to get a clear understanding of the patient’s needs or concerns.