Instead of reading, you could also just listen …
Communication is everything.
Communication is one of the most fundamental tasks of doctors.
We are constantly relying on sending and receiving information to provide our service.
Who are we communicating with?
Our communication partners are:
- Paediatric patients and their parents
- Our supportive partners (nurses, PA, dieticians, …)
- Our colleagues in teams for multidisciplinary approaches
- The wider hospital work force (secretaries, porters, cleaners, …)
No exceptions here
Communication is one of the most fundamental tasks of doctors.
There is no one, who would not need to communicate to anybody to provide their service.
Even surgeons, who are known to often by their limited communication skills, need to get consent by their patients.
Medical disciplines would need their patients commitments to treatment plans.
Even radiologists, pathologists and any doctor working mainly in a laboratory setting, has to communicate with someone.
Communication is everything
One axiom in communication theory is that“ You cannot not communicate!”
Even so, not all behaviour is intended to be communication, in the wider world. We act and do things for other reasons then sending a message. Something just has to be done.
The communication then lies in the way, how we do them, while in the view of our patients.
In the setting where doctors and patients meet, virtually every aspect of our behaviour of us is perceived as sending a message, either conscious or unconscious.
The recipient judges the communication
Because communication is one of the most fundamental tasks of doctors, it is mandatory to have a shared base for this exchange. Only with a common ground for communications, the relationship between doctor and patient can be efficient.
This aspect includes language barriers, but goes way beyond this.
Let me remind you about the impact of fear and lower IQ of your patient on the process of exchanging information.
It might be frustrating when we feel that we have done all we can, and the recipient of the information just doesn’t understand us.
We might as well speak Martian (language from Mars) with them.
Speaking more Martian will not help. We would need another way.
In a nutshell:
Communication is one of the most fundamental tasks of doctors.
We often forget this very basic aspect, unfortunately.
Previous post Next post
Connect Respect Engage Extra tips Contact/About me
Communication lives on comments … fancy to share yours?