How important is communication in medical practice?

Non-technical language.

Why use non-technical language with patients?

The quality of medical care has human communication as its central theme; But if this communication is poor, the possibility of conflict increases. It has been shown that in most cases the problems are not related to poor professional technical performance, but rather to a failure in the communicative process between physician-patient.

How important is communication in medical practice?

Communication should not only serve to obtain information that physicians need in the fulfillment of their functions, but it must also be used so that the patient feels heard, to fully understand the meaning of his/her illness and so that he/she feels like a partner in her/his care. It is up to physicians to identify their own difficulties from their daily practice and reflectively transform them in order to have a positive impact on the health care of their patients.

Note

One thing is "knowing how to communicate" and another is "knowing about communication"; just as "being healthy" is one thing and "knowing about medicine" is another.

_{Why can we consider that communication is essential for physical and mental recovery?}

Communication is a key ingredient in mental health recovery. Being able to communicate how you feel can help others understand you better, and we all want them to understand us. However, the mental anguish can affect communication, so there are times when it can be much more difficult to find the words, even when you are not in distress and are fully able to explain your feelings and emotions.

Many times it will be necessary that some of the terms used in the query are explicitly detailed and even that we write them. Why? Well, because surely the patient, as he/she comes out, is going to contrast them with other people or with the advisers' par excellence of our days: Dr. Google and Dr. Wikipedia. At least, let them do it in the right words if we don't want to create even more confusion.

What is there left to do? 

The consultation is, usually, the dialogue between a scientist and someone who is not, and with the imperative need for both to understand each other. Like all dialogue, it is back and forth, that is, the patient must understand what we say to him/her, but, in the same way, the doctor must understand what the patient says and even what he/she would like to say and perhaps cannot express. Especially important at the time of diagnosis.

What is there left to do? For this question, there is only one answer: education.

Patient's speech

The patient's speech is a common communicative talking. And we as physicians need to be aware of it. We need to know how to transcript patients' complaints to record them in a clinical note or rather in the clinical history.

Any questions so far?