While healthcare changes are on the horizon, doctors and medical professionals still face challenges regarding the best ways to keep patients informed. Before deciding on the tool used to communicate information, physicians and medical professionals need to ensure they choose the most appropriate way of communicating with patients.
Simple Steps to
Follow
- Make Information Available in Many Ways – Simply put, people learn in different ways. Some are auditory learners, others learn by reading, some are kinesthetic learners and others need a variety of approaches. Doctors should consider these methods when communicating with patients and understand how patients best process information. Verbally mentioning information is not always enough to truly communicate. Providing information in a written form, or along with a visual, reinforces points and helps patient remember information related to their own care or conditions of family members and friends.
- Jargon – While patients need access to healthcare information in multiple forms, verbal communication will remain a primary way to communicate with a doctor. Many medical terms may be out the realm of a lay person’s vocabulary. Doctors should ensure they tailor their speech and communicate in terms that reach all patients.
- A Word Is Not Always Enough – Do not always assume that a patient may take a medical professional at his/her word. Use of current research will reinforce suggestions and may serve as a way to open up further dialog, or make a patient feel they may ask questions to better process information.
Concluding Thoughts
By first ascertaining the ways patients take in information,
doctors and medical professionals may then decide on the proper channels of
communication. The technology itself only becomes effective after the medical
community first learns how patients take in information to stay informed.
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