Taking a moment to reflect can sound like a luxury right now. Yet pausing to stop, and intentionally consider what’s going on around us, can also provide emotional distance from all the intensity. Writing is a powerful form of thinking. When you combine reflection and writing, you have the potential to see life a little […]
Patient Education
How Freire can help with communication about COVID-19
The world is facing an unprecedented health crisis. With that, comes the urgent need for effective education about this health crisis. If you’re a health professional, educating patients or the public, this is for you. I’m going to tell you one thing you can do—one important change you can make right now—that will improve how […]
What are you learning from COVID? 15 reflective practice prompts
This is for the healthcare and public health professionals, leaders, educators, and health professions students living through COVID-19. I see you, and this is one way I can offer support. Specifically, I’m hoping to help you untangle some things, or perhaps slow the train down a bit, when it comes to what you’re learning right now. […]
An infodemic, trust, and communication around COVID-19
The World Health Organization has identified an infodemic around COVID-19. To be sure, it can be tough for anybody to make sense of the information flooding around the coronavirus. But when it comes to battling this infodemic, the WHO is banking on trust. In this episode of 10 Minutes to Better Patient Communication, I take […]
Dr. Beverly Zavaleta talks about how getting cancer changed her approach to patients
When this physician was diagnosed with cancer, she confronted her assumptions about patients, communication, and education. Board-certified family physician Dr. Beverly Zavaleta tells us what happened, and how it changed her practice. Listen below, or read the transcript. At Health Communication Partners, we work quite a lot with communication between patients and clinicians. But what happens […]
A resource for addressing microaggressions in healthcare
Everyone has bias. Implicit bias has been shown to contribute to health disparities. Recent research has shown how public health, medical care, and human service providers can unintentionally contribute to health disparities. The evidence that physician behavior and decision making may contribute to racial inequalities in health care is difficult to reconcile with the fact […]