“We’ll see you and Katie on Monday. Take it easy this weekend,” the vet tech says on the other end of the phone. “Thanks,” I say, and my voice can’t escape cracking, and I hang up the phone and cry. It’s Saturday. The Monday appointment will likely have only one outcome. I am standing at […]
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 yourself. […]
The easily-overlooked first step in cross-cultural communication
An OB-GYN and I were talking about a recent presentation she’d seen from a leader in her field. I heard in her voice how much she’d enjoyed the presentation, and we spent some significant time talking about it. She was encouraged by this physician’s thoughtful comments on some of the complexities in physician/patient communication. She […]
25 different ways to elicit important information
I recently heard a Family Practice Physician comment on the importance of follow-up questions. He mentioned how it’s easy to ask a patient, “Do you smoke?” and if their answer is “no,” to move on to the next issue. He said providers were “missing opportunities for follow up questions,” even though the patient had said […]
“I can’t follow my patient home:” how context matters in health communication & education
I was coaching a physician on making his patient education more effective. He was understandably frustrated, as many physicians are, over the short amount of time he has with each patient. We talked about the many constraints around patient education. His voice raised and he sounded exasperated: “I can’t follow my patient home!” There are […]
From pee-pee, to pee, to urine: the work that words do in health
I was talking with a nurse educator about the uncertainty and difficulties nursing students can face as they learn the specialized language of medicine. She said, “Because this is a different language. It’s very difficult for a student to come in and talk ‘urination.’ They’re used to saying ‘pee.’ And yet their patients aren’t going […]
