Designed to synthesize a growing international and interdisciplinary body of experience, this volume provides a mandate and a charge to medicine to fundamentally transform the traditional clinical method and the social relations it fosters between doctor and patient and between student and teacher. The contributors challenge the medical establishment to change their clinical method from that of a disease-centred to a patient-centred one. Four sections deal with issues related to the doctor's own transformation, the medical interview, teaching and learning, and validation.
This 2006 volume provides a comprehensive discussion of communication between doctors and patients in primary care consultations. It brings together a team of leading contributors from the fields of linguistics, sociology and medicine to describe each phase of the primary care consultation, identifying the distinctive tasks, goals and activities that make up each phase of primary care as social interaction. Using conversation analysis techniques, the authors analyze the sequential unfolding of a visit, and describe the dilemmas and conflicts faced by physicians and patients as they work through each of these activities. The result is a view of the medical encounter that takes the perspective of both physicians and patients in a way that is both rigorous and humane. Clear and comprehensive, this book will be essential reading for students and researchers in sociolinguistics, communication studies, sociology, and medicine.
This book introduces the reader to the basic skills necessary for good communication between doctors (and other health professionals) and patients. The practical importance of such skills is outlined, making the doctor much more effective in all fields of medicine. This is not a book for the specialist reader, but aimed at all those who need to talk with patients.
For patients and their loved ones, no care decisions are more profound than those made near the end of life. Unfortunately, the experience of dying in the United States is often characterized by fragmented care, inadequate treatment of distressing symptoms, frequent transitions among care settings, and enormous care responsibilities for families. According to this report, the current health care system of rendering more intensive services than are necessary and desired by patients, and the lack of coordination among programs increases risks to patients and creates avoidable burdens on them and their families. Dying in America is a study of the current state of health care for persons of all ages who are nearing the end of life. Death is not a strictly medical event. Ideally, health care for those nearing the end of life harmonizes with social, psychological, and spiritual support. All people with advanced illnesses who may be approaching the end of life are entitled to access to high-quality, compassionate, evidence-based care, consistent with their wishes. Dying in America evaluates strategies to integrate care into a person- and family-centered, team-based framework, and makes recommendations to create a system that coordinates care and supports and respects the choices of patients and their families. The findings and recommendations of this report will address the needs of patients and their families and assist policy makers, clinicians and their educational and credentialing bodies, leaders of health care delivery and financing organizations, researchers, public and private funders, religious and community leaders, advocates of better care, journalists, and the public to provide the best care possible for people nearing the end of life.
This text and its companion, "Teaching and Learning Communication Skills in Medicine," provide a comprehensive approach to improving communication in medicine. Exploring in detail the specific skills of doctor-patient communication, the book provides evidence of the improvements that these skills can make in health outcomes and everday clinical practice.
A proven prescription for effective communication that will empower health professionals to deliver the highest quality care―from the Academy of Communication in Healthcare Research shows that nothing impacts patient experiences more than the quality of communication. While beneficial, the latest in cutting-edge technology and techniques aren’t enough to ensure the best possible care for patients. The key to better healthcare outcomes is communication. Over the past four decades, the Academy of Communication in Healthcare has worked tirelessly with health systems, teaching communication skills that put relationships—between patients and providers, as well as among providers—at the center of care. Now, for the first time, ACH’s proven and effective methodology is detailed in this invaluable step-by-step guide. You’ll learn communication skills that will enable you to: * Provide more accurate diagnoses and effective treatments—and improve patient outcomes * Boost patient adherence and lower hospital readmission rates * Make fewer errors and reduce malpractice risks * Increase patient satisfaction and build teamwork among providers * Further develop your communication skill set—and help others do the same In this practical—and potentially life-saving—volume, you’ll discover special sections on teamwork, coaching, shared decision-making, feedback, conflict engagement, diversity, and communicating through hierarchy. The book also provides institutional initiatives to help you implement change in your organization and outlines a field-tested blueprint for healthier communication across the entire industry. To create effective communication and meaningful connections in healthcare, trust ACH. Communication is literally its middle name.
Part of suffering from an illness is the fear of not knowing what might happen. One needs information about the illness, about treatments, and about the outcome. Patients appreciate when their autonomy is respected, and they are given options to choose from. But for them to find the right choice is often like looking in the dark to find a path they never took before. No one is in a better position than their doctor to shed light on the paths and to guide them for the best choice to make. This book describes what a patient needs to know and what the doctor needs to communicate to enable the patient to make choices that are rational, based on medical standards, and can best lead to recovery. Such communication takes time, can be arduous, yet it is a doctor's duty and is essential for a harmonious doctor-patient relationship.
Communication skills determine how the world perceives us - and how we perceive the world. Communication is at the heart of who we are and all that we do. As a clinician, your communication impacts how you take care of patients, work with colleagues, teach trainees, and engage audiences and the public. Communication encompasses all aspects of human skills, from listening and clearly articulating thoughts to an awareness of physical gestures, specific word choice, tone, and volume. Whether engaging with patients, peers, care teams, family members, residents, researchers, insurance agencies, management, or journalists, successful communication requires focusing on the importance of the relationship and the mission of each interaction. Today, due to the rise of digital technologies including electronic medical records, online forums, and video conferences, the content of information, the platform, and the audience are continuously changing and expanding for physicians. There is a great need in the physician community to learn how to facilitate the exchange of information, provide psychosocial support, partake in shared-decision making, translate complex information, and resolve controversies with sound science in a variety of settings. Addressing physicians at every level of training and practice, Physician Communication: Connecting with Patients, Peers, and the Public will enable providers to examine, analyse, and improve their skills in the art and science of communication. Divided into four sections: Face-to-face Communications; Digital Communications;Public Speaking; and Traditional Media, this book will help physicians navigate various situations using different methods and modes of communication.
Effective communication is at the heart of medical profession, whether it is patient-doctor communication, interpersonal communication, or communication with the scientific and research community. However, medical professionals are not adequately trained in these skills, and when it comes to presentations, the message is often lost due to inadequate preparation, ineffective slides, and a generally unconvincing performance by the presenter. This book addresses all aspects of the communication skills required by individuals entering medical school as well as professionals farther up the career ladder. Each chapter offers a quote or a statement that captures the essence of the text. Adopting a unique approach known an A, B, C, D and E (Assess Need, Brief, Contextualize, Describe and Evaluate) the book includes abundant illustrations, real-world case scenarios, anecdotes, tables, graphs and cartoons, as well as practical information, and tips on communicating effectively. As such it is a valuable resource for new and experienced clinicians, educators and researchers wanting to improve their communications skills.
Racial and ethnic disparities in health care are known to reflect access to care and other issues that arise from differing socioeconomic conditions. There is, however, increasing evidence that even after such differences are accounted for, race and ethnicity remain significant predictors of the quality of health care received. In Unequal Treatment, a panel of experts documents this evidence and explores how persons of color experience the health care environment. The book examines how disparities in treatment may arise in health care systems and looks at aspects of the clinical encounter that may contribute to such disparities. Patients' and providers' attitudes, expectations, and behavior are analyzed. How to intervene? Unequal Treatment offers recommendations for improvements in medical care financing, allocation of care, availability of language translation, community-based care, and other arenas. The committee highlights the potential of cross-cultural education to improve provider-patient communication and offers a detailed look at how to integrate cross-cultural learning within the health professions. The book concludes with recommendations for data collection and research initiatives. Unequal Treatment will be vitally important to health care policymakers, administrators, providers, educators, and students as well as advocates for people of color.
