Communication Skills Summary for Medical Professionals

COMMUNICATION SKILLS SUMMARY Note that this summary is to be used as a speed revision not as a main study source, since a lot of the points that may be important are excluded from this summary as it depends mostly on common sense and reading text books • Being able to communicate effectively, most imp skill and imp for medical profession • Communication is both science and art • As a medical student you practice communication in, attending classes, counseling, consultation, providing health education • Anticipatory care includes active listening and consultation • The goal of any communication is mutual understanding • One way communication is linear approach • Two-way communication is transactional approach and its better since it allows feedback • The communication process is dynamic, continuous, irreversible and transactional • Noise can be environmental or physical • During covid, leave a distance of 150 cm • Non-verbal communication represents 2/3 of communication • Effective communication (receiver ideas/sender ideas) = 1 • Encoding and decoding are similar • The most fundamental component of communication skill is listening • Intentional effect of communication is direct change in KAP Components of the communication process: • • • • • • Sender: initiates the communication Encoding: sender puts ideas and thoughts in several forms Message: information Decoding: interpretation (done by receiver) Receiver: our target Feedback: the final link in the communication process, it ends the loop in the 2way communication The final aim of the communication is the interpretation of the message by the receiver Communication skills is the basis for implementing all professional health and medical activities, it can be learned and retained, it can be verbal and non-verbal • Non-verbal communication is indirect and often unconscious • Hearing is physiological. Listening is psychological • • • • Listening is an active process, requires a conscious decision Small group is heterogenous, 3-15 people Large group is homogenous (such as lectures) Consultation includes all the steps of patient encounter and relationship with patient • Doctors must follow a holistic approach when looking into patients For effective consultation: 1) Acknowledge patient concern 2) Allocate time and resources 3) Encourage honest transfer of information 4)Avoid skepticism Imp questioning skills including, following with closed ended questions, avoiding leading questions, don’t ask interrogative questions • Paraphrasing is stating the patient’s words to verify if its right, where reflecting is paraphrasing plus adding an emotional tone to the message • The final aim of consultation is patient compliance and cure • Teach-back method is a technique used to enhance communication, the receiver is asked to teach back the information in their own words WHO defines health communication as a key strategy to inform the public about health concerns K: Knowledge (does not mean implementation) A: attitude (can be assessed but not observed) P: practices (are implemented) • Adoption is where a desired practice becomes a norm, no relapse • Face to face communication is the method if choice for effective health education • Effectiveness of lectures can be increased by allowing question and answers • Mass media are generally less effective compared to direct approach in changing human behavior • In successful HE start from the known to the unknown