The doctor-patient-interaction starts with the preparation.

Not only our own preparation, but also the preparation of the parent and sometimes the child as well.

We have only limited influence on the parent’s preparation at home before the appointment, but we could aim to make the best out of it!

How to improve the experience before the appointment?

A customized invitation letter might help parents before the appointment. For a good start for the “real” appointment in the office, this very first moment of communication is crucial.

Purpose of the invitation letter

The doctor-patient-interaction starts with the preparation. When they know, what to expect, parents can prepare themselves and their child better for the consultation. They will come to the appointment with less anxiety and more anticipation (and that is a cousin of curiosity).

Aspects of an invitation letter

Here are some aspects an invitation letter can provide:

• A “checklist” about what to bring to the appointment (medical information, medicines currently used, …).
• Clear directions about how to find the place of the appointment (including details of access with public transport and parking).
• How to handle any administrative steps before the consultation
• What the patient/ parent can expect from the appointment (including frequent occurring additional examinations, such as taking of blood, allocated time for the appointment).
• Is support available for children who are extremely frightened or need otherwise help with the appointment.
• Child-care for siblings (if available).
• Typical waiting times and
• Parallel running clinics
• Including questionnaires to help focus on specific symptoms or the frequencies of episodes.
• The invitation letter could include colouring pages, that contains information for the child about the visit with the doctor.

Design of the invitation letter

We see that, again, we try to transport a lot of information with this letter.
This can lead for the letter to become overwhelming.
As I described before, it is useless, when we try to provide information in a way, that the recipient does not understand it. We would need to put effort in simplifying the used language (the average reading age in the UK is between 9 and 11 years!).

Also, we would need to consider that some recipients of the letters do use English as a second language. The letter would have to be adjusted to their needs.

For this purpose, and generally, pictograms and illustrations are quite helpful here. For example:

• A picture of a clock with the time and a calendar with the date.
• A map from the parking facilities/ bust stop towards the correct entrance of the hospital.
• A sketch of the route towards the reception/ clinic/treatment room/ ward inside the hospital.

Nowadays, the information could (should) be provided in electronic message as well.

The effect on the interpersonal dynamic

An invitation letter tackles the hierarchy of knowledge and the associated power imbalance. The material can include instructions on how to prepare their child for the event. The parents need to know if the child needs to be fasted before the consultation.

When we provide the parents with information that they can use to prepare the child, we empower them in their role. This helps with the whole dynamic of the interaction.

In a nutshell:

Empower the parents already before the appointment, by providing information, that caters for their needs.

Previous post  Next post

Connect   Respect  Engage   Extra tips   Contact/About me