Medical professionals may be highly trained and qualified experts in their field but can often benefit from some important communication tips too.
When a patient visits a medical professional in pain or distress, they want far more than information. They want empathy, compassion and understanding.
As a public speaking coach, most of my time is spent sharing communication tips and advice with professionals in the business world. Through a recent health concern myself, it occurred to me that just like the corporate world, being a highly intelligent and experienced professional in any field doesn’t automatically make you a good communicator. Medical professionals aren’t exempt from the need to communicate effectively. In fact, knowledge, information and experience communicated poorly can be harmful.
7 Very Important Communication Tips
As far as their patients are concerned, medical professionals don’t need to learn how to create a compelling structure, tell stories or worry about stage presence.
They do however, need to:
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Smile
“A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.” William Arthur Ward
I don’t mean welcoming your patient into your clinical room with a great big cheesy grin on your face.
Have you ever tried not warming to someone who smiles at you?
When you greet your patient with a genuine smile, you’re sending a very important message to them. You’re telling them that you are a nice person and they are in good hands.
I read with interest an online article called, ‘Stressed Out? Doctor’s Advice: Smile.’
‘Dr. Anand Chockalingam is a heart specialist at the University of Missouri Health Care who tells his patients to smile.’
“When we smile, the brain wiring gets altered. The chemicals that are released are more positive,” he said.
He goes on to say that, ‘smiling is a first step in fighting stress and its ill health effects.’
I can’t tell you the last time I was greeted by a doctor with a warm smile.
It’s the first but possibly one of the most powerful and important communication tips.
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Make good eye contact
“Where words are restrained, the eyes often talk a great deal.” Samuel Richardson
The greatest key to connecting with your patient is by making eye contact with them. Good eye contact also projects confidence, authority and attentiveness.
Don’t look at your screen, look at your patient.
In a article in the British Journal of General Practice, authors Jonathan Silverman and Paul Kinnersley have suggested that:
‘An increasing body of work over the last 20 years has demonstrated the relationship between doctors’ non-verbal communication (in the form of eye-contact, head nods and gestures, position and tone of voice) with the following outcomes: patient satisfaction, patient understanding, physician detection of emotional distress, and physician malpractice claim history.’
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Set a clear intention
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou
Before your patient enters your room and sits down, ask yourself how you want them to feel when the appointment is over. Informed isn’t enough; they can get information from Google.
Create a clear emotional intention and craft your consultation around that feeling. How do you want your patient to feel; understood, cared for, reassured?
Here’s a very simple communication tip shared in an article: 18 Easy Ways to Improve the Patient Experience:
‘Demonstrate Empathy for How They Feel
Yes, 75% of patients’ perception is that their physicians lack empathy. If patients truly believe you care, they are willing to overlook a multitude of mistakes and much more likely to accept your recommendations. Use questions to get patients talking about themselves. Over 51% of patients felt their relationships with their doctors could be more personal.
Increase patients’ perceived value of services provided. 62% felt they should have had a better patient experience considering the cost.’
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Keep it simple
“It’s a lack of clarity that creates chaos and frustration.” Steve Maraboli
Don’t confuse and scare your patient with medical jargon and terminology so they have to go home and ‘Google’ what you said to work it out for themselves.
Explain things slowly, clearly and simply; in layman’s terms. Speak to them in the same way you would talk to your mother or grandfather.
I like some of the ideas shared in this article:
– ‘Only explain to a level that is appropriate (and not the level of explanation you would use to another doctor).
– Make sure the explanation is relatively concise and that you don’t go on and on and on. Keep things simple!
– Chunk & Check – if you’ve got a lot to explain, do it in bits. For example, do the diagnosis. Then check they have understood. Then do the management plan and check understanding again.
– Always check for patient understanding.’
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Do your homework
“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” Alexander Graham Bell
I recently paid a senior medical professional to get a second opinion. In advance of our appointment I sent him a full MRI report together with a complete set of blood test results. He acknowledged and thanked me for these by email.
When I arrived for my appointment it was clear that he had not only not looked at the reports but also hadn’t read my email.
Another doctor recently prescribed some pain medication which the pharmacist advised me not to take as it interacted with another medication I was already taking.
If there is a medical history or patient notes, read them before you start asking your patient questions.
I like the way it’s summarized in this article, ‘In conclusion, a patient’s medical history is the bedrock of quality healthcare. From aiding in precise diagnosis, facilitating preventive care, fostering personalized treatment plans, and even lending itself to technological advancements, medical history has proven itself to be an indispensable tool.’
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Don’t just prescribe
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Albert Einstein
Have you ever left a consultation with a medical professional where you were given a prescription without a clear explanation of:
– What is was exactly?
– Why you were being given it?
– What it would do, how it may help and how it works?
– Any serious side effects or interactions with other medications
If like me, you have, you’ve probably had to look this information up for yourself on Google or go and ask a pharmacist.
Giving out prescriptions without a very simple and clear explanation is unhelpful and can often cause more fear, doubt and confusion for the patient.
In her article, ‘Tips for Educating Patients About Their Medications’, the author explains:
‘Educating patients about their medication is crucial for several reasons including:
Understanding – when patients are educated about their medication, they understand why they are taking it, how it works, and what to expect in terms of benefits and potential side effects. This understanding helps to encourage a sense of empowerment and enables them to take an active role in their own healthcare.
Adherence – patient education improves medication adherence. When patients understand the importance of taking their medication as prescribed, they are more likely to adhere to the recommendations associated with it, leading to better health outcomes. A lack of understanding can lead to non-adherence, which can result in treatment failure or worsening of their condition.’
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Tell them what you’re looking for
‘Blood is deemed so precious that is also called “red gold” because the cells and proteins it contains can be sold for more than the cost of the same weight in gold.’ The National Center for Biotechnology Information – NCBI
Don’t arrange for your patient to have blood taken from their arm without communicating very clearly:
– What you are looking for, testing and why
– The significance and value of the blood test
– What happens next whether the results are positive or negative
The reason this is such an important communication tip for medical professionals is summarized in the article: What information do people need about their blood tests?
‘Blood test results can help diagnose and monitor health conditions, and offer reassurance. However, research found that patients’ lack of understanding about the purpose of tests could lead to frustration, anxiety, and uncertainty. The authors call for more information and open communication to help patients engage with decision-making.
People need clear information to reach shared understanding with their clinician about the purpose of a test. Shared decision-making (on whether to have a test) is based on this shared understanding. Shared understanding and shared decision-making are best practice in choosing treatment options. Their role in testing decisions is less explored.’
Good communication is critical if a patient is to leave your consultation feeling understood, and supported. These 7 very important communication tips will go a long way to patients trusting your judgment and following your advice as a medical professional.
It’s easy to make your patient feel dismissed and sometimes even patronised or simply that you are ticking them off your ‘to do list’.
It goes without saying that by far the most important communiction tip for all of us is to be honest. For medical professionals that extends itself to being more mindful about managing expectations. In otherwords, if someone comes to see you and leaves hoping that you will be able to help them soon, don’t leave them to receive a letter the next day telling them you will see them again in 2 months, tell them before they leave the room.
There are a great number of important communication tips medical professionals can learn from but I’d recommend starting with these 7.
– Smile
– Make good eye contact
– Set a clear intention
– Keep it simple
– Do your homework
– Don’t just prescribe
– Tell them what your looking for
The problem
I’m confident that most medical professionals reading this article would agree with the 7 very important communication tips. It’s likely that many will say and believe that they already follow them.
There is of course another force at play.
It’s time
An article in the dailymail.co.uk, sums the situation up clearly and concisely: ‘An average doctor would need to work 27 hours a day to provide adequate care for every patient they see, an analysis led by a physician has claimed.’
Perhaps we could just start with a smile…
If you’d like to learn many more important communication tips
– Book yourself onto a powerful public speaking course.
– Invest in some really good one to one public speaking coaching.
– Get yourself some excellent presentation training
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