Instead of reading, you could also just listen …
We often experience an interrupted communication with our patients.
As I wrote in my previous post, communication is judged by the recipient, not by the sender. So let’s have a look at how we are doing.
Lucky for us, the aspect of communication between doctors and patients has been studied extensively. Unfortunately, the results make for a grim reading:
- Between 50 and 80% of the information is immediately forgotten.
- The more information we present, the lower is the proportion that is correctly recalled.
- Almost half of the information that is remembered, is incorrectly.
- Between 30 — 50% of the patients are considered non-compliant with the doctor’s orders.
- For longer-term treatments, the rate of adherence to the treatment plan can be as low as 30%.
Wasted effort?
We frequently communicate poorly, and therefore, we often experience an interrupted communication.
We are wasting our time and the patient’s time.
When I learned these results, I was shocked at how much of my time and energy I had wasted. I tried to give more and more information to patients. The goal was “shared decision-making” with them. I wanted them to understand the problem. The hope was that they would participate in the treatment planning. I saw my patients (and their parents) as active partners rather than passive recipients of any regime.
What was the outcome of my investment?
The only result of me talking more, was that I was exhausted at the end of the day. I regularly experienced that my patients end up confused, after I tried to explain a complicated situation. This was not really what I had wanted.
I have often communicated poorly, and I have often experienced an interrupted communication.
What are the consequences?
Consequently, effective communication is not about talking more
but
talking better equipped,
in a way that the recipient can take advantage of the information that is shared.
In a nutshell:
Our current approach to communication with patients seems to miss the plot.
Communication lives on comments … fancy to share yours?