By Morgan Wilson Earlier this month, I discussed the effects eye contact and social touch can have on patient perceptions of clinicians’ empathy. In this same study, one of the practice implications determined by the researchers was that clinical environments designed for patient and clinician interaction should be designed to facilitate positive nonverbal interactions, such as eye contact and social touch. They are right that our surroundings can influence our interactions with others, as I have learned in my nonverbal communication course. Both the physical environment and spatial environment are part of nonverbal communication, but for this post, I will focus on explaining the impact that the physical environment alone has on communication and apply it to healthcare settings.
There are three major components of each physical environment, one of which that is the most relevant to this study is the architectural design and movable objects. Montague, Chen, Xu, Chewning, and Barrett referenced results from another study reported by Gorawara-Bhat and colleagues to support their conclusion regarding practice implications – an environment that contains no desk, no height difference, and optimal interaction distance could lead to more eye contact. While the latter concerns proxemics and is considered part of the spatial environment, the
talk more softly, sit closer together, and presume that more personal communication will take place. According to a study by Miwa and Hanyu in 2006, students reported feeling more relaxed in dimly lit counseling rooms compared to those that had brighter lighting. Additionally, an environment’s design or structure may determine how much and what kind of interaction takes place. A 1971 study by Drew included in our text describes how three different designs for nursing stations within a mental hospital yielded very different types of interactions. It was found that the more inaccessible setting decreased the frequency of the interaction and increased the amount of task-oriented messages, while the more accessible setting increased the frequency of the interaction as well as the amount of small talk. Our perceptions of our environment affect our reactions. There are six dimensions central to our perceptions, which consequently influence how we send and receive messages. One of these six dimensions is our perceptions of warmth. We are more likely to relax and feel comfortable in environments that make us feel psychologically warm. Semi-fixed features that can contribute to a space’s warmth are the color of drapes or walls, paneling, carpeting, texture of the furniture, and softness of the chairs, just to name a few. The environment is clearly a significant influencing factor in our communication; however, we must remember that its impact is only one source of influence on our perceptions. Sometimes, other factors can offset any negative effects from a displeasing environment. There are certain healthcare settings wherein the environment may be more important than others. Patients would probably appreciate warmer environments in counseling rooms, oncology treatment rooms, or a physician’s office when receiving major news. Sources:
Montague E, Chen P, Xu J, Chewning B, Barrett B. Nonverbal interpersonal interactions in clinical encounters and patient perceptions of empathy. J Participat Med. 2013 Aug 14; 5:e33. Knapp, Mark L, Judith A. Hall, and Terrence G. Horgan. Nonverbal Communication in Human Interaction. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, 2014. Print.
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By: Zia Gray
Throughout our blog, we have realized how important nonverbal communication can be in the healthcare field. It can help doctors with determination of diagnosis and it can help improve a patient's experience. As a student currently in a Nonverbal Communication course, I wonder how much this course has taught me? I have learned so much about nonverbal communication, but could I easily do it in real life? I thought I would check this question out in the medical world. In 2010, Hirono Ishikawa, Hideki Hashimoto, Makoto Kinoshita, and Eiji Yano set out to find some answers! The placed medical students groups and put them through different models of medical training. Students sat through a nonverbal communication session that concluded with a session with a "patient". One group had a mentor intervening throughout the patient session and the other did not have any intervention. The researchers wanted to examine whether students could learn nonverbal communication and if so, through what educational model? These researchers found that students that had a mentor intervene throughout the patient session, paid more attention to the training. That makes sense to me, because I know if I am going to be graded or asked questions, I am more likely to pay attention! Even though those students paid more attention, it did not cause a significant change in the pre-test, post-test interviews used in the process. Students did not apply or discuss nonverbal communication skills in their interviews. Is this bad news or is there a silver lining? The researchers admit that learning and applying nonverbal communications skills can be very hard. In the medical field, teachers may need to adapt and examine their teaching methods to see how students can learn these skills the best. So far we see two main teaching methods emerge: content based and method based. While this study did not find that the students gained extensive nonverbal communication skills, we can use this study to help improve our teaching methods! As nonverbal communication continues to be recognized as important in the medical field, I am excited to see how teaching methodology evolves. In my nonverbal communication course, I feel as I have learned many important skills and I hope to apply them in the future! Check on Hannah's blog on the University of Barcelona to see how they taught their students nonverbal skills! Also, if you have any ideas on how to teach nonverbal communication, comment below! Source: Ishikawa, H., Hashimoto, H., Kinoshita, M., & Yano, E. (2010). Can nonverbal communication skills be taught? Medical Teacher, 32(10), 860-863. doi:10.3109/01421591003728211 By Emma Greijn This is a very interesting study which looks at nonverbal communication between patients and doctors, similar to everything else on this blog, but in a different way. These researchers wanted to come up with a way to analysis nonverbal communication between the two groups, particularly with new patients, and see if there were ways to improve this encounter. The study points out that there are currently ways in which to analysis these encounter, but none that focus solely on nonverbal communication and accommodation. D'Agostino and Bylund say "Accommodation within an interaction is the product of many factors. Given that an individual may have multiple goals during an interaction, he or she may variously accommodate different behaviors." [34]. What they mean by accommodation is two fold, between convergence and divergence. The two concepts are important to understand and implement when dealing with patients. Convergence, matching the persons communication style which shows similarity, and divergence, which emphasizes differences in style and show those differences. Both of these concepts are important and using nonverbal communication cues to understand which to use in health care are very important. The researchers looked at previous research and found that the outline of the Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) was something to work off of. Some interesting findings from the previous research fits with what many other nonverbal communication research says about eye gaze. For example, the CAT studies showed that high rapport physicians engaged in less eye contact than low rapport physicians. Not only this but they found that eye contact was the best predictor of patient distress, empathy, questions, and patient-centeredness. [D'Agostino et.al. 34]. The issue they found with this theory was that is focused on "physician behavior, relied on analysis methods not specifically developed for rating accommodation and neglected the role of nonverbal communication." [34]. To expound on this research they created the NAAS, which took many of the testing strategies from CAT but tweaked them to focus more on nonverbal communication and to better suit their study. To test their NAAS they consulted with and video recorded 45 patients and had two independent coders view and rate each consultation. The results for this study showed promise for the NAAS "as a tool for systematically analyzing the process of nonverbal accommodation within physician-patient interactions." [37] The NAAS aided in rating the rapport of patients and physicians and patient satisfaction, understanding and compliance. [37]. Some aspects the system looks for is pauses in conversation, eye gaze, and looking away to what direction etc. These are very important things when dealing with healthcare workers and patients. With NAAS it could help to show how the patient-physician interaction moves closer or furthur from one another using nonverbal behaviors. They note that the system "results demonstrate that the NAAS method can be taught and mastered with little intervention." [38], so in reference to the previous post, maybe physicians can be taught! Of course NAAS is not a comprehensive coding method and future research should be done to improve on the system to be able to implement it and better the patient-physician interaction experience. So what do you think?Source:
D’Agostino, T. A., & Bylund, C. L. (2011). The nonverbal accommodation analysis system (NAAS): Initial application and evaluation. Patient education and counseling, 85(1), 33-39. By Hannah Cox In a follow up post relating to "Do Good Grades Predict a Strong Doctor," I thought it may be important to examine what medical schools are actually doing to help give their students a strong educational background on communication, not just health care practices. The article "How we train undergraduate medical school students in decoding patients' nonverbal communication clues," a study completed at the University of Barcelona, aims to implement a training program that teaches second year undergraduate medical school students about examining/analyzing patients' nonverbal communication cues. This particular university found it important for students to have these decoding and encoding skills before they enter the field, which we, as nonverbal communication students, can appreciate. Students are expected to complete the following objectives: "To distinguish different components of NVC [nonverbal communication] in patients’ behavior, to perceive patients’ emotions through patients’ facial expression, to recognize patients’ emotions through the interaction between the nonverbal components, to discriminate types of relations between VC [verbal communication] and NVC in doctor–patient interactions, and to identify the factors influencing an accurate interpretation of the meaning of specific nonverbal clues in a medical visit." The learning material is set up into four two-hour modules with small groups, and then two five-hour sessions with healthcare personnel as facilitators. At the end of the modules, students complete a multiple choice test and also create write-ups on the session with healthcare personnel, and examine the importance of how these skills are relevant to being a doctor. In comparison to "Do good grades create a strong doctor," I think it is very beneficial that universities are realizing the importance of including nonverbal communication training in the curriculum for medical school. If doctors are able to decode complicated patients' nonverbal behaviors, doctors may be able to pick up on things that they normally may not interpret as noteworthy. Not only that, but patient satisfaction may also increase if doctors can prove they recognize these patients are real people - not just another client in the office. In topic 9 in our course material, we learned about nonverbal behavior that may be associated with deception. If doctors can detect patients' deception, it can help them best work to help the overall health. Patients may lie to protect their own image - an older individual may not want to admit memory loss or physical disability because of their own self-esteem. They may not want others to see them as disabled, or needing extra assistance. If a victim of domestic violence enters the office for broken bone/bruising, they may deceive doctors to avoid negative repercussions of their significant other. If a doctor can pick up on "something fishy" in this situation though, it can save the patient from future harm and/or future toxic relationships. Overall, doctors just want to be able to help people to their fullest ability. If patients are deceiving, doctors will need to have had extra training in nonverbal development in order to help patients in every way possible. Source: Molinuevo, B., Escorihuela, R., Fernandez-Teruel, A., Tobena, A., & Torrubia, R. (2001). How we train undergraduate medical students in decoding patients’ nonverbal clues. Medical Teacher, 804-807. Retrieved April 24, 2017. Check out this article on patient deception for more info! www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2736034/
By Morgan Wilson To better understand how nonverbal communication behaviors, such as eye contact and social touch, affect patients’ assessments of clinicians in regards to their empathy, connectedness, and liking. The results?
Empathy is “the socio-emotional competence of a physician to be able to understand the patient’s situation (perspective, beliefs, and experiences), to communicate that understanding and check its accuracy, and to act on that understanding with the patient in a therapeutic way.” Keyword: communicate. Two significant nonverbal cues in this study were eye gaze and social touch (not to be confused with task touch, which is used for clinical or diagnostic purposes only and would be more similar to the instrumental type of touch). The data suggests that both of these nonverbal cues can help clinicians communicate empathy to their patients.
The results also show that longer visit lengths are associated with higher patient perceptions of a clinician’s empathy. In other words, time is an important factor in the consultation. Have you ever felt rushed or like you didn’t have enough time to share everything you wanted to during an appointment? Or maybe you were able to speak on everything you intended to, but didn’t feel like you were really being heard or understood. I know I have. This study discussed how sometimes, patients want more time with the clinician so they can share their “story,” and they may even feel guilty asking for help when the clinician seems rushed. Further analysis revealed that while the effect of eye contact decreases as the visit length increases, it is an important indicator for the patient’s perception of empathy when the consultation length is short.
According to this study, too much touch could in fact backfire on them. Data indicated that social touch can lead to better patient assessments of clinicians, as long as it is done in moderation. Patient ratings of liking and connectedness increased with social touch to a point, but decreased when done in excess. So, how much is too much? Of course, this is very subjective. Every person obviously has their own preferences and feelings around touch and what is appropriate in which situations. – Yet another reason why nonverbal communication skills are essential for doctors as this knowledge and awareness would help them pick up on any cues and adapt accordingly in each unique scenario. – The results in this study, however, hypothesize that two social touches, like a handshake, hug, or pat on the back, during a consultation may be ideal. I found this research to be consistent with what we’ve learned in class. Touch can cause people to feel cared for, relaxed, supported, and reassured, and can even be used by professionals to influence others. Our text explains that some kinds of touch from nurses would be considered positive touching if the patient perceives it as comforting and relaxing. Furthermore, there are certain situations that people think increase the likelihood of touch. The ones that could related to the patient-clinician relationship are giving information or advice, trying to persuade, or participating in a deep, rather than casual, conversation. Eye contact, according to our text, serves various important functions:
Want to learn what other nonverbal cues are useful for clinicians? Check out Zia’s blog post from last month where she discusses the nonverbal communication acronym physicians use, ironically called “E.M.P.A.T.H.Y.” What does the E stand for? You guessed it! – Eye Contact. Sources:
Montague E, Chen P, Xu J, Chewning B, Barrett B. Nonverbal interpersonal interactions in clinical encounters and patient perceptions of empathy. J Participat Med. 2013 Aug 14; 5:e33. Knapp, Mark L, Judith A. Hall, and Terrence G. Horgan. Nonverbal Communication in Human Interaction. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, 2014. Print. By: Zia Gray
As we examine nonverbal communication, a common theme of interpretation of pain arises. Pain is often expressed nonverbally throughout the medical field. To further analyze pain expression, we question if pain expression differs according to gender? Edmund Keogh in Gender differences in the nonverbal communication of pain: A new direction for sex, gender, and pain research? analyzed how gender effects pain expression. To do this he examined historical pressure and how that effected gender communication. Historically, women typically maintained social relationships and men socialized with family. This made men more dominant and women submissive in interactions. This is said to shape how men and women communicate nonverbally. Men are more likely to show signs of aggression and women are more likely to show submissive signs such as crying. While historical pressure has an effect on nonverbal communication, so does societal pressure. Men are often told that they shouldn't cry, and that causes men to suppress emotional expression. Women are stereotyped by society to be emotional, meaning it is more acceptable for women to be emotionally expressive. You may be wondering, why does this matter in the healthcare setting? Many nonverbal cues transfer over into pain expression. The more clearly an individual can express pain, the easier a doctor can diagnose and help the patient feel better. If women are more likely to be emotionally expressive, they could be considered better patients. The next question to consider is: if you are in severe pain are you really going to care what others are thinking of you at that moment? Keogh states that facial expressions of pain are similar for men and women. When in pain, you do not consciously attempt to control facial reaction. What is interesting is that while men and women have similar facial expression, the way those expressions are decoded is different according to Keogh. Preconceived notions on how a certain gender should behave can effect how a doctor treats a patient. A doctor could assume one gender is overreacting and one gender is underreacting. Should doctors allow preconceptions to effect how they treat a patient? Does a physician even know when preconceptions are affecting their work? The issue is that currently there is minimal research into this topic. Keogh suggests that there should be further research into how physicians decode nonverbal expression depending on gender. Do you think gender affects nonverbal expression decoding? If so, what can we do to help remove gender stereotypes? Comment below with your ideas! Source ... Keogh, E. (2014). Gender differences in the nonverbal communication of pain: A new direction for sex, gender, and pain research? Pain, 155(10), 1927-1931. doi:10.1016/j.pain.2014.06.024 I see how you feel: Recipients obtain additional information from speakers’ gestures about pain3/29/2017 By Emma Greijn I seem to find interesting articles relating to understanding patients pain and nonverbal communication. Of course this is kind of an important thing to study since, after all, when you are in a hospital in pain I'm sure you would like to be understood. In this article I found, the researchers, Samantha J. Rowbothama, Judith Hollerd, Alison Weardena, , and Donna M. Lloyde, looked at "whether recipients can obtain additional information from gestures about the pain that is being described." The reason for this study, is similar to why I keep finding articles like this relating to pain, because pain is a common theme in healthcare setting. Being able to understand what a patient is feeling internally or externally can be very difficult, but very important. The researchers say that verbal communication, though also important, may not be the one and only indicator for understanding what a person is going through. The method used in this study included 135 participants, both male and female, which they were shown videos of 1) speech only (SO), 2) speech and gesture with faces obstructed (SG), 3) speech, gesture, and face (SGF), and 4) speech, gesture, and face plus instruction (SGF - Instructed). The videos consisted of 21 female participants with the dependent variable being "the amount of information contained in participants' responses that was directly traceable to the gestures contained in the clips." They showed clips such as this one to the right. The results for this study were as follows "Post hoc comparisons indicated that participants in the conditions where gestures were visible (SG, SGF and SGF-Instruction) obtained significantly more information than those in the SO condition, with this additional information directly traceable to gestures (SG: p < .001, d = 2.79; SGF: p < .001, d = 2.32; SGF-Instruction: p < 0.001, d = 4.00)." This means there is significant data showing that gestures are in fact an important part of pain assessment. As we recently learned in class, gestures can speak for themselves, so paying attention to both verbal and nonverbal communication can better aid in proper diagnosis and care for patients. The study concludes by saying "These findings add weight to the idea that we should be looking as well as listening to those in pain in order to ensure that pain communication is as successful as possible." Source:
Rowbotham, S. J., Holler, J., Wearden, A., & Lloyd, D. M. (2016). I see how you feel: Recipients obtain additional information from speakers’ gestures about pain. Patient Education and Counseling,99(8), 1333-1342. doi:10.1016/j.pec.2016.03.007 By Hannah Cox It’s no secret that medical school has a stigma of being one of the hardest graduate programs existing. Students feel an insane amount of pressure to get good grades throughout their entire lives - good high school grades get them to college, good college grades get them into medical school, good medical school grades in class and within clinics will get them into a good residency program, a good residency program will get them a good job. When students are placed into clinical rounds their third and fourth years, they are also taking many important comprehensive exams to check to see they are paying good attention during these rounds. As the article “Being a good medical student doesn’t mean you’ll be a good doctor” notes, these patients that they are supposed to be serving become roadblocks from studying. Students are so focused on their grades that they forget they are serving real people with real problems. Unfortunately, as “Why Failing Med Students Don’t Get Failing Grades” discusses, students cannot be failed out of medical school for having poor interpersonal communication skills. For most in the profession, they will be meeting with patients on a regular basis. Learning to treat the patients, nurses, and co-workers with respect, care, and empathy is the job. There isn’t always a straightforward textbook procedure available. Part of treatment to patients is not just the physical aspects, but also the emotional ones. Communication plays a huge role as to whether or not a patient is comfortable opening up to the doctor (which is sometimes the only way doctors can help patients), coming back to that doctor, and the overall impression/feeling people get about hospitals, physicians, etc. Obviously, verbal communication is key here, but nonverbal communication plays a huge role here. Eye contact, posture, facial expressions, and vocal tone impact a patient to the highest degree. Imagine if you are being treated by a medical student and they come into your room staring at papers, pacing, and rushing you to answer questions before running off to another patient. How would you feel? Imagine another medical student comes in and sits down with you, asking you questions and follow-ups on your current treatment plan. He sits forward in his chair, making good eye contact and has an approachable facial expression. You’re much more likely to feel important, which would encourage you to speak up about any other concerns you have. Therefore, you’d be able to receive the best care and have the best outcomes. In Morgan’s post “Physicians' Nonverbal Communication Skills can Predict Patient Satisfaction,” she notes that the ability for physicians to read nonverbal communication of their patient is also important to their overall care. Imagine you’re a doctor and you’re asking a patient to discuss their reason for coming. She have a giant bruise on her arm and a sprained ankle, and she says she fell down the stairs. However, she is looking at the floor, speaking in a somewhat hushed tone, and is fidgeting nervously. A good read on nonverbal communication may tell you that something else is going on that you should ask her about. As Morgan notes, “Furthermore, if physicians do not decode effectively, they may fail to identify patient dissatisfaction or distress if the patient is reluctant to express their feelings verbally to their physician.” These interactions can influence whether or not the patient is satisfied with their treatment plan, whether or not they adhere to their treatment plan, and as to whether or not they return. In module six, vocalics are discussed. The tone of voice and inflection that both doctors and patients use is very important to the overall satisfaction of the patient's’ experience, and also the care they receive. This is important because of the type of meaning that can be conveyed within tone of voice. The rate, pitch, enunciation, rhythm, and loudness of speech can indicate the seriousness of a situation, or the comfort/relationship level of the patient and doctor. Amy Ho from “Being a good medical student doesn’t mean you’ll be a good doctor” recognized that when she started caring for patients as they were - people in need - her grades flew up without even having to try. Rather than trying to recall textbook information, she made personal connections with her patients and did better on her tests and examinations than ever before. While being a doctor is very information heavy and there is a ton to learn in medical school, these articles show us that the best doctors are not just knowledgeable, they are also personal and have strong communication skills. Sources: Chen, P. W., Dr. (2013, February 28). Why Failing Med Students Don’t Get Failing Grades [Web log post]. Retrieved March 26, 2017, from https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/why-failing-med-students-dont-get-failing-grades/?_r=0 Ho, A. (2013, October 6). Being a good medical student doesn’t mean you’ll be a good doctor [Web log post]. Retrieved March 26, 2017, from http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2013/10/good-medical-student-good-doctor.html As the video above implies, even grades for pre-medical school students are an ongoing stressor. This user, however, delves into the positive, and where to go from there! You are not your mistakes.
By Morgan Wilson Take the popular television shows, House M.D. and Grey's Anatomy, for instance. These medical drama series are centered around the professional and personal lives of physicians that work in hospital healthcare settings.
a knack for catching subtle hints and accurately determining difficult-to-catch diagnoses.
Now, let's examine their nonverbal communication skills by watching two short video clips.
Do you think the patients of either of these fictional physicians would be satisfied?
In healthcare settings, nonverbal communication primarily involves the communication of emotional cues through facial expressions, body postures and movements, and the tone and inflections of voice. Physicians' ability to communicate, or encode, these emotional messages in nonverbal channels as well as their ability to understand, or decode, their patients' nonverbal cues are both equally important for achieving patient satisfaction. Failure to communicate emotions effectively results in encoding errors, where negative emotion was communicated while intending to communicate positive emotion. As I'm sure you can imagine, such errors significantly lower patient satisfaction levels. Encoding also helps physicians establish rapport with patients in situations where verbal expressions of caring and concern may be uncomfortable or inefficient. Furthermore, if physicians do not decode effectively, they may fail to identify patient dissatisfaction or distress if the patient is reluctant to express their feelings verbally to their physician.
At the time when the article "Predicting Patient Satisfaction from Physicians' Nonverbal Communication Skills" was published in 1980, the impact of verbal communication on patient satisfaction had been observed and examined far more than the small amount of research that had been conducted on the role of physicians' nonverbal encoding and decoding skills in patient care. Although, authors DiMatteo, Taranta, Friedman, and Prince were not the first ones to take note of the significance of nonverbal communication in healthcare. The importance of physicians' nonverbal communication skills has been recognized by physicians as early as Hippocrates and Osler. To examine the relationship between physicians' nonverbal communication skills and their patients' satisfaction with their medical care, two studies were conducted. This research was completed at a 478-bed community teaching hospital in New York City during the mid-1970s and involved a total of 71 residents in internal medicine and 462 of their ambulatory and hospitalized patients. According to DiMatteo, Taranta, Friedman, and Prince, these studies showed that physicians who were more sensitive to body movement and posture cues to emotion received higher ratings from their patients on the art of care than less sensitive physicians. Additionally, physicians who were successful at expressing emotion through their nonverbal communications tended to receive higher ratings from patients on the art of care than physicians who were less effective communicators. Therefore, they found that measures of these skills predict patient satisfaction with the art of medical care received. The article explained that patients' overall satisfaction with medical care tends to be best predicted by their satisfaction with the dimension of physician conduct, which comprises two aspects:
Patient satisfaction is an important component of the quality of medical care as it can influence patients to adhere to medical regimens, while dissatisfaction can result in malpractice litigation and doctor-shopping. Each of these subsequent patient behaviors influence the cost and effectiveness of healthcare. DiMatteo, Taranta, Friedman, and Prince stated that, when patients are dissatisfied with the affective side of the medical care they receive, "many patients change physicians ('doctor shop') because they are dissatisfied with the impersonal treatment they receive and with their physicians' seeming lack of interest in them." They believe that change like this can be wasteful because it results in "needless duplication of examinations and procedures." But healthcare records have changed quite a bit since this article was published in 1980. Now, many patient files are stored electronically and can be shared with the patient as well as other physicians and healthcare practitioners with the proper permission. Despite this modern increase in the ease of access to records, however, I know from personal experience that some physicians may prefer to reperform some examinations and procedures again themselves, thus resulting in the "duplication" that DiMatteo, Taranta, Friedman, and Prince discussed in their article. These two studies showed that the patients "expressed greater satisfaction with physicians who were sensitive enough to decode body posture and movement cues to emotion." Such physicians are possibly more adept at recognizing dissatisfactions and discomforts that patients are unwilling or unable to express verbally and, therefore, more adept at satisfying their patients' socioemotional needs. Both studies confirmed that physicians' skills for accurately perceiving body movement cues to emotion was a significant predictor of patient satisfaction with the art of care. Through analyzing the data collected during the studies, DiMatteo, Taranta, Friedman, and Prince were able to conclude that physicians who were more sensitive to body movement cues to emotion and better able to communicate emotion nonverbally tended to be somewhat more successful at satisfying patients' socioemotional needs than physicians that lacked sensitivity and emotional expressiveness. Source:
DiMatteo, M. Robin, et al. “Predicting Patient Satisfaction from Physicians' Nonverbal Communication Skills.” Medical Care, vol. 18, no. 4, 1980, pp. 376–387., www.jstor.org/stable/3764191. By: Zia Gray
We see in many healthcare situations how nonverbal communication can be misinterpreted or even ignored. To combat nonverbal communication, Dr. Riess and Mr. Kraft-Todd created an easy acronym in their article E.M.P.A.T.H.Y.: A Tool to Enhance Nonverbal Communication Between Clinicians and Their Patients. In their research they found that many pieces of medical literature often miss the lesson of nonverbal communication to focus on verbal communication. To create an acronym the writers examined different medical cases and the nonverbal communication involved in order to create an acronym solution. To help teach physicians how to recognize and look for nonverbal signals they use this acronym: E: Eye Contact M: Muscles of Facial Expression P: Posture A: Affect T: Tone of Voice H: Hearing the Whole Patient Y: Your Response E.M.P.A.T.H.Y. helps physicians maintain a positive patient experience while enhancing a physician’s ability to diagnose and treat quickly. Sometimes a patient may not be able to verbally express every aspect of their health issue. The aspects of E.M.P.A.T.H.Y. highlight important nonverbal factors a doctor should use to analyze a patient's well being. For example, last week I was diagnosed with a pinched nerve in my lower back. It was some of the worst pain I had ever felt. It was very hard for me to completely relay my pain to the doctor. Factors such as my muscles of facial expression, posture, and tone of voice easily conveyed my pain to the doctor and helped us come to a quick diagnosis. Over time physicians may become desensitized to working with patients and slowly begin to not recognize the nonverbal indicators important in a patient’s stay. When this occurs patients can often become dehumanized. E.M.P.A.T.H.Y is an important step in readily reminding physicians of the nonverbal ways a patient is communicating. Please check out this study if you think E.M.P.A.T.H.Y. could help the medical field! ... Source: Riess, Helen, and Gordon Kraft-Todd. "E.M.P.A.T.H.Y.: A Tool to Enhance Nonverbal Communication between Clinicians and their Patients." Academic Medicine, vol. 89, no. 8, 2014, pp. 1108-1112doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000000287. |
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Hannah Cox Archives
April 2017
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