Make the Connection: Improve Your Communication at Work and at Home

87. What’s Up, Doc?

Chapter 87 WHAT’S UP, DOC? This book talks about the importance of great communication in customer service, team building, sales, and leading an organization. Every professional, whether an accountant, lawyer, or clerk, must be a first-rate communicator in order to connect with their audience of one or one thousand. One area where excellent communication can literally become a life or death issue involves physician-patient relations. There is a scene in the movie Patch Adams, which stars Robin Williams playing a doctor in training, where a woman who is ill is being wheeled from the operating room by a very detached physician and his residents. The physician begins touching her and talking about her using medical jargon as if she is not even there. When the physician asks,“Any questions?” Patch Adams responds by asking the patient,“Yeah, how are you doing? I’m Patch Adams, what’s your name?” The physician reprimanded him for asking the patient’s name and said,“You need to stay detached from the patients because you’ll deal with so many of them who will probably be gone in a year or two. You don’t want to lose all that emotionally.” Do doctors and healthcare professionals need to be detached because they deal with so many patients? To get some answers I recently spoke with a group of physicians and other healthcare professionals regarding the essence of doctor-patient communication.Here are some excerpts from that discussion: Dr. Arnold Gold, professor of pediatrics and neurology at Columbia University and founder of the Englewood Cliffs-based Arnold P.Gold Foundation, promotes humanism in medicine and the concept that physicians need to look beyond science, medicine, and technology in order to truly provide quality healthcare to their patients. Dr. Gold says, “Communication training and truly listening to patients are integral parts of medical school education. This is a part of an ongoing process in the educational development of a physician-intraining and a medical student as well as the residents. For example, a caring, compassionate physician who is communicating in a very per186 MAKE THE CONNECTION sonal manner is demonstrating the importance of caring and is a role model for students and residents.” Dr. Steve Miller, Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital, believes,“You can’t turn every physician into an outgoing and social individual. However, there are certain things a physician can do to convey warmth and understanding. Take, for example , the golden first minute when you first meet a patient. I teach medical students to keep this first interaction with a patient very openended and allow the patient to really talk, while prompting him or her to say what’s on his or her mind.” This theme of listen first, talk later is a critically important tool that helps break down barriers and creates a more open and supportive environment . This approach helps not only in doctor-patient communication but in any interaction in both professional and personal situations. Dr. Adrienne Headley, a faculty member at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, stresses the importance of empathy in doctor-patient communication. “I think empathy is putting yourself in the patient’s shoes by trying to imagine what they might be feeling. Once I approach a patient from that vantage point, the emotional distance is minimized. I’m still a professional and I am going to offer my expertise, but I also realize that we are both human beings; we are both reaching out to each other, and that the patient needs my help.” Dr. Headley also shares her views on the concept of humanism in medicine.“We are human beings before we are physicians. The best doctors never lose sight of that fact. The best doctors always keep in mind that we all at some point have to interface with our mortality.” What is there left to say? The humanism in medicine movement makes a lot of sense.What profession couldn’t use a little more humanism? Communicating withStrength in Tough Situations 187 ...