As providers, you have information that will help your patients be healthier. You hope to communicate it in a convincing way, so it will enter into patients’ thoughts and actions long after the patient encounter. But what about when you have differences of opinion on what healthy means? When it becomes clear you don’t share the same understanding of living a healthy life, or … [Read more...]
What you need to know about health literacy and health apps
When physicians talk with me about apps, those conversations tend to fall into two categories. (No, not 'glee' and 'horror.') Maybe these apply to you: your patients are coming to you, talking/asking questions about various apps, or your organization uses a specific app, and you are talking to patients about that app. So if you find yourself talking apps, and you’re … [Read more...]
Connect with patients who don’t talk like you do
“I want to help these moms talk to their babies,” the physician told me. “Who? What do you mean?” I asked. She gave me a quick overview of a study she’d learned about: “There was a recorder that transcribed the number of words and type of words that they used – more educated people—[there was] the word gap of 30 million...” I recalled the study she referenced and I … [Read more...]
Providers, your language may have more power than you realize (Revisited)
It seems each of us knows someone who has cancer, is in recovery from cancer, or has died from cancer. Near the start of this year, we ran an article (and later a podcast episode) called “Providers, your language may have more power than you realize.” That article begins with a recollection from a woman with cancer about an important conversation she had with her provider, a … [Read more...]
Are you making these 6 mistakes in your cross-cultural communication?
Cross-cultural communication is one of the more critical communication issues in healthcare today. And for good reason. Cross-cultural communication training is helpful to numerous outcomes. And when it's missing, outcomes suffer. Here are some common pitfalls when it comes to communicating across difference - and what you can do to avoid them. Mistake #1: Forgetting … [Read more...]
