Patient communication - how can it be improved?

Jodie Humphries

Communication with your patients is vital, but how do you improve patient communication? Implementing a number of simple strategies that add little or no time to the clinical encounter can improve patient communication. Good communication is the key to most successful relationships.

Good patient communication involves recognizing and responding to the patient as a whole person. Patient communication is a crucial component of all medical specialties

Around 80 percent of the information your doctor needs to make a correct diagnosis comes from what you say. The remaining pieces of the puzzle are found when you're examined and from tests.

The report 'Communicating with patients' offers the follow advice when it comes to patient communication:

• Get the patient encounter off to a good start

• Monitor your body language

• Practice effective listening skills

• Ask questions that yield information and offer support

• Give answers that will be understood

• Partner with your patient

• Develop cultural competency

• Provide motivational counseling

• Demonstrate empathy and compassion

Research indicates that healthcare providers who believe in the importance of the psychosocial aspects of patient care are more effective in communicating with patients and attending to their psychosocial needs. Nonetheless, time pressures and other stresses take a toll on clinicians as well as their patients, or clients, and can interfere with their ability to communicate with patients in a way that will ensure the best possible clinical outcomes.

Communicating with patients has become tougher. Visits are briefer, yet patients want more face time; patients arrive armed with dubious medical advice from the Internet; and physicians are challenged to try to relate to patients while typing into the electronic medical record (EMR).

Poor communication can lead to missed diagnoses, patient resentment, noncompliance, and a greater chance of being sued. An often-quoted study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1997 showed that the 2 factors leading to a malpractice suit are bad outcomes combined with poor physician-patient communication, Medscape Today states.

Why is good patient communication vital?

Patient satisfaction - Medical evidence has demonstrated a positive association between patients' satisfaction with the health care they receive and their providers' ability and willingness to communicate and empathize with them.

Clinical outcomes - Patient outcomes-based on objective, clinical measures-have also been shown to improve when providers incorporate appropriate communication techniques into their daily practice. A study of family planning services in Egypt found that client-centered communication not only improved client satisfaction, but significantly increased continued use of the planning method selected in consultation between clinician and client.

Benefits to practice - Strategies to improve communication with the patient will yield greater efficiency in practice. For example, soliciting patients' concerns and allowing them to complete their statements has been shown to add little time to the medical interview, while significantly reducing the likelihood of 'late-arising' concerns or missed opportunities to gather important patient data.

Better patient retention and reductions in complaints of malpractice are additional practice benefits that have been associated with effective provider-patient communication. One study found that 90 percent of complaint letters to a managed care plan focused on physician communication style.

Nurses and patient communication

The nursing profession, like that of a teacher, can often be an under-appreciated profession. All of the small and large things that nurses take care of in one shift go unnoticed unless there is a problem. The nurse often becomes the most important person in a hospital patients life. Nurses are the ones who have the opportunity to see healing and nurturing take place. Any nurse who has been practicing for any length of time will also tell you that certain patients retain a place in their hearts long after they are discharged, the article 'Patient communication - why nurses are so important in the hospital' states.

Without patient communication, the patient wouldn't receive safe and effective care and the nurse wouldn't be able to do his or her job efficiently. Doctors are often hurried and unable to adequately listen to all of the concerns their patients may have, due to the amount of patients they have to treat. It is the job of the nurse to relay the vital information to the doctor in charge to make sure their patients are taken care of. Among the many other duties a nurse performs in the hospital, listening to what their patients have to say about how they are feeling and what they need is one of the most important aspects of being a good nurse.

Another reason patient communication in the hospital is so vital is because sometime accidental errors do occur, after all, hospital personnel are human and accidents happen. A nurse who is very good at their job and talking to patients and their families are much more likely to notice a discrepancy than a hurried doctor. Nurses who pay attention to what their patients are going through will remember that medications should have been given an hour ago or that a test was performed the day before, for example. A patient is much more comfortable with their treatment when they have a nurse that listens to them and is someone that they trust to look out for their best interests.

Nurses are a vital aspect in providing patient communication in the hospital. Patients heal better and feel safer when they have a nurse that they feel is an advocate for them and their health. Nurses may be vital in patient communication, but so is each and every individual involved in healthcare and the treatment of a patient.

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