Capsule Minds: Three Reasons Your Patient Loved You
By Suneel Dhand, MD
The degree to which the practice of good medicine is essentially also the practice of good communication is vastly under-taught and underappreciated. Medicine is a social profession where you need to have people skills. This isn’t just important for the sake of being successful in your career, it’s actually valuable for your intrinsic satisfaction within your profession.
Take a look around you — and bet your bottom dollar the best communicators are frequently the happiest in their jobs too. On that note, here are three reasons why your patient may just have loved you:
You listened
This is such a simple thing, but I would advise any physician to just listen more than they talk. Studies show that many doctors interrupt their patients only several seconds into them talking. Time is limited, and we need to focus — but there is an art to be being a calm listener in any circumstance.
Your demeanor and body language radiated compassion
A patient usually seeks the help of a doctor at a low point in their lives. That’s easy for a physician to forget during a typical busy and hectic day. Before entering a room and interacting with any patient, every doctor should take two-to-three deep breaths, reset, and tell themselves the following: (i) it’s a privilege to be a doctor, (ii) the patient needs my help, (iii) I can exhibit a caring attitude and really make a positive difference to this patient’s day.
You remembered the little things
The master communicators remember the little details and thereby leave a lasting impression on people they interact with. Physicians who are amazing communicators will remember something their patient said about their child, sick parent, or where they went on vacation — and ask about it. This can take all of ten seconds to do and is very much remembered and appreciated. It’s the same trait anybody who is a confident, successful conversationalist will have: A genuine interest in the other person.
We have very high standards in healthcare to ensure physicians reach a certain level of competency before they are allowed to practice medicine. It goes without saying that having a solid knowledge base and being clinically sound are the most fundamental part of being a good doctor.
But that’s not what patients and families typically appreciate the most — unless we are talking about a type of surgery that only a handful of physicians can perform. And while medicine isn’t a popularity contest, working on being a great communicator and understanding what other human beings want and respond to is something every doctor should always be doing.
Suneel Dhand is a physician, author, and speaker. He is Co-Founder at DocsDox. Visit his website and YouTube channel.
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