I. Effective Communication

Knowledge Base

The competent graduate should have a sound knowledge of:

  1. Methods of oral and written communication which are effective in a variety of situations related to health care including interactions between:
    1. physician—patient and family (related to prevention, emergent and non-emergent acute care, chronic care and terminal care)
    2. physician—physician (i.e., referral, consultations, cross-coverage)
    3. physician—other health care workers (i.e., orders, care plans, research)
    4. physician—representatives responsible for financial reimbursement
    5. physician—legal representatives
    6. physician—community leaders and members (i.e., education, establishing health policies)
  2. Helpful interviewing behaviors including methods to:
    1. Create an atmosphere conducive to effective communication
      1. greeting the patient
      2. putting him or her at ease, conveying empathy an respect
      3. winning the patient’s cooperation
      4. rapport building
      5. checking patient’s understanding
      6. encouraging questions
        Encouraging the patient to volunteer information
      1. starting with an open questions
      2. allowing the patient to tell his or her story, listening carefully
      3. clarifying the patient’s responses (insist on precision)
      4. explaining purpose of questions
    2. Conducting the interview systematically
      1. keeping the discussion relevant to the problem
      2. closing down on and defining the problem
      3. summarizing periodically
      4. closing the interview clearly
    3. Identifying the patient’s goals for consulting the doctor
      1. styles of communication
      2. listening
      3. body language
      4. voice tone
      5. speech patterns and tempos
      6. words to use/avoid
    4. behaviors that annoy us/others so that they may be avoided, especially behaviors that devalue the other person
      1. making judgements about the person
      2. being patient
      3. insensitivity to cultural differences
      4. minimizing or ignoring some aspect of another person or yourself
      5. using jargon or medical terminology not understood by all of the involved person(s)
      6. avoiding responsibility for actions or feelings
      7. forgetting to follow through or do something promised
      8. not being willing or able to consider how someone else sees things
    5. techniques for defusing difficult situation (i.e., dealing with patients who are angry, sad, fearful, displaying somatization)
      1. showing empathy
      2. reframing
      3. selective agreement
    6. the use of computer technology in heath care including:
      1. the use of information technologies to effectively convey the significance of patient findings to other physicians and providers
      2. the use of bibliographic databases to monitor progress in practices and as a resource for problem solving
      3. the use of bibliographic databases to choose relevant journal articles for study and to maintain pertinent bibliographic databases
      4. the use of word processing

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