Over the course of last year, I spoke several times with an African American male physician. At one point, we were talking about his professional journey in medicine. He mentioned that he had learned to be more comfortable with, as he put it, “…being the only Black person in the room. Hearing ‘How did YOU […]
Reflective Practice
Do your assessments measure what matters?
It’s the time of year when we like to look back, and look forward. We set goals. We assess where we’ve been, where we are, where we’d like to be. But in health care, assessment and evaluation has a decidedly harder edge. One nurse manager in a physician practice told me, in passing, “I’m kind […]
Infographic: Quickly assess your patient communication
What do I need to know about communication to be better at it? I hear this question, in one form or another, when speaking with health care professionals. And there’s no wonder why. When you’re dealing with so much complexity, your words have got to be clear. Getting a grip on your patient communication is essential. […]
What is the emotional impact of your patient communication?
A physician was telling me about a total patient communication fail. He did not know it was a fail, until a resident jumped in and saved the day. He laughed, recounting the scene to me. He thought he was doing fine. He thought he was being clear. But when he heard the resident’s language, he […]
Laser-focus your patient education efforts with this one question
Many physicians have talked with me about improving their patient education. This makes sense; it’s a topic tightly woven together with patient communication and health literacy. So, several months ago I wrote “5 steps to improve your patient education.” It’s a quick fly-over of many educational strategies. I promised I would gradually dive deeper into […]
Quickly assess your patient communication with this time-tested approach
The physicians who speak with me want to be more conscious of their language. They know communication is important, and they want to know more about how language works, so they can be better doctors. That’s often why they’re talking with me. Their questions take different forms: What do I need to know about communication […]