One medical educator wrote me in response to the podcast, “How a small change in what you say can improve your patient education.” She thanked me for giving a ‘name’ to the problem that is a deficit perspective. She pointed out the tension between approaching a patient focused on the problem, and approaching a patient […]
Health communication has all the pitfalls of everyday communication
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could magically leave our awkwardness, doubt, or frustration at the door when we have to communicate in a professional capacity? In the summer of 2016, I was in the audience when Marcella Nunez-Smith, of Yale’s School of Medicine, gave a keynote address to a conference of health communication researchers. In […]
What does health literacy mean to you?
Health literacy continues to be talked about. But what do we mean when we talk about it? What one physician–and a group of researchers–had to say may surprise you. Hi this is 10 minutes to better patient communication. I’m Dr. Anne Marie Liebel. A few months ago, I decided to conduct an informal survey. I’d […]
“I don’t want to unintentionally offend people”
I was coaching a physician on communication, and at one point our conversation took an interesting turn. We had been talking about interprofessional communication, when the physician told me she was worried about offending people unintentionally. At first, I thought she was talking about her colleagues. But she also gave some examples of interactions with […]
4 Questions to ask about mentoring in the health professions
About a year and a half ago, I began a series of conversations with an MD in Academic Medicine, who was interested in restarting the mentoring program at her medical center. She knew it would be a complex and significant undertaking. One ‘problem’ is the massive body of research on mentoring in the professions. Also, […]
2 things to remember when educating your next patient
If you’re a health care provider, you educate patients in some way. Theories about education, like any others, can morph over time. This episode invites you to consider what you’ve been assuming about learning and learners. And I give you two things to keep in mind for the next time you educate a patient. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Hi, […]