Improving Patient-Provider Communication

Follow These 7 Tips for Educating Your Patients During Their Visit

Patient counseling and education is pivotal for empowering patients in their own care. Patient education is used to discuss disease etiology, prognosis, management, and review different scenarios in which medical care will be needed. With time constraints and the rise in telemedicine, this is sometimes difficult. Here are some tips to ensure appropriate patient education.

1. Ditch the medical jargon.
This one is self-explanatory. As clinicians, we make sure we provide patients with literature written at a universal or basic reading language, but do we verbally communicate with our patients in this way? It is helpful to take yourself out of medical jargon and translate it to everyday, accessible language. Try to avoid using communication tendencies, such as colloquialisms, that may not be understood by different demographic groups.

2. Stay organized and keep it simple.
I find it helpful to verbally categorize what one is talking about. It is easy to get lost in back-and-forth conversations about different topics. To engage your patient’s attention, it can be helpful to clearly state the category of education you are covering. For example, “these are treatment options,” “these are the things you should look for,” or “here are precautions you should take.”

3. Review high-yield scenarios.
Patients often encounter common scenarios with their diagnoses. These can be anticipated outcomes, likely side effects, disease characteristics that may develop, possible barriers, etc. It is helpful to review common high-yield scenarios with your patients and what they should do in these situations. Also, review the scenarios in which they should be contacting you or seeking medical care.

4. Repeat after me.
Patients can be overwhelmed with the unfamiliar knowledge being presented to them. A helpful tip is to have them explain crucial points back to you, including recalling the medications you prescribed. For example, “Can you repeat the prescriptions I am prescribing you and what are the important features we discussed?” That way you can identify aspects of your counseling that you or they have missed.

5. Show and tell.
This applies to a product, prescription, device, or tool that the patient should use. Either you or a trained member of your staff can review this. For example, many patients are not aware of how to appropriately use topical prescriptions or medical devices. It is helpful to show them and then have them demonstrate it back to you. In some instances, the device company or pharmaceutical company may have resources to train patients.

6. Teach and counsel throughout the visit.
One of the first mistakes I made in residency was waiting to save all of my skin-check counseling for the end of the visit. This ended up significantly lengthening the visit. During long visits, you can correlate your counseling to the action you are performing during the exam. For example, “I am examining your lymph nodes for the following reason,” or “I recommend you check your lymph nodes the same way every…” I would also encourage all staff members to be accurate teachers as well.

7. Provide educational materials.
There are a wide variety of educational materials, such as technology sources, physician or professionally written handouts (ie, VisualDx handouts), brochures, checklists, etc. Patients cannot recall everything you tell them, so it is helpful to have these available for your patients to review at home. Digital resources can also be helpful, but only if they are easily accessible to your patient. Also keep in mind that your patients may be deterred by the complex processes needed to obtain some forms of information, such as creating accounts or needing to access information on a different device.

As you wrap up your visit, consider asking your patient if there is anything they feel needs clarifying or that they would like for you to review again. Encourage bringing a family member or friend to complex visits when you anticipate counseling will be performed. And lastly, allow an easy way for your patient to contact your office and get clarification if needed.