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.
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April 2017
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