health education | wellness

Category: Practitioner

Four Ways to Improve Physician Listening Skills

Being a good listener is cited in numerous patient feedback surveys as one of the main things that people value in a physician. Here are four simple ways to improve physician listening skills:

Stop, Look, and Really Listen

If you want to do anything right, you have to pay attention and do it correctly the first time. Otherwise, your efforts may be counterproductive. That’s definitely true with listening, which is not a multitasking type of skill. So when it’s time to talk with a patient, stop everything else. Look them in the eye, and concentrate only on that specific listening task.

Be Warm and Cordial

During a busy and stressful day, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that patients aren’t just problems you need to solve but are sensitive people who want to be heard. They are often scared or emotionally raw since they are not feeling well. So use a calming voice. Be warm and cordial. Let them know that you are a friendly face and a helpful ally, not just an experienced physician.

Engage in Active Listening

Never forget that unless you ask and then listen, the patient may not reveal the information you want and need most in order to make your own job easier and more successful. When a patient explains something to you, paraphrase and summarize it back to them. For example you might reply “Is this what I hear you saying? You feel exhausted and have a sore throat?” That kind of active listening ensures that there is no miscommunication.

Use Nonverbal Communication

Be sure to also listen to nonverbal communications from your patients. If a patient appears anxious, for example, that could be the reason for a higher blood pressure reading. But it may be that they are only nervous about being in the doctor’s office, and as soon as they return home their blood pressure may fall. So also try to read between the lines. But don’t guess. If you read something in a patient’s body language then ask more questions to see if your assumptions are correct.

October 11, 2015
Complementary Health Modalities to Help Your Patients
Why complementary health?

The opportunity for patients to benefit from a growing number of health care treatments is wonderful, and health care providers should take advantage of these different complementary therapies and treatments. It was not that long ago, for example, that acupuncture was considered a fringe modality outside of the mainstream in North America. Meanwhile people in China had been touting its benefits for centuries. Today, however, acupuncture is widely prescribed across the USA and is oftentimes covered under standard health insurance plans.

Similarly, modalities such as massage therapy can be highly beneficial in accelerating healing or promoting greater range of motion and freedom from pain in patients who have a muscular injury or a condition such as arthritis. Even something as simple as basic exercise – like walking, swimming, or yoga – may be an ideal therapy for all kinds of patients. Those who are recovering from a heart attack or stroke, for instance, may derive great help from simple physical movements that improve their circulation and balance. Those supplementary activities can also help you as a health care provider monitor their heart rate and blood pressure with accurate baselines and strategic benchmarks.

In Western medicine there is also less emphasis in med school, for instance, on diet – while there is a great deal of required study regarding pharmacology. All heath care professionals know, however, that diet – including the proper daily intake of essential vitamins and minerals – is a key to health and wellness. Without a good diet the immune system is weakened and without proper nutritional support healing is impeded and delayed. So one of the alternative modalities that every patient should be introduced to is helpful guidance and insight into diet and nutrition.

Common Complementary Health Modalities
- energy medicine
- body-based manipulations such as massage
- mind-body modalities like biofeedback, meditation, and hypnosis
- biologically-based treatments such as herbal remedies
- integrated-based treatments that combine allopathic and complementary medicine such as functional medicine
The reality is that many patient seek complementary health treatments anyways so it is better that they can be open and honest with their physicians. To stay informed regarding all the different modalities and therapies available, you can refer to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. That organization funds research into alternative medicines and follows developments.
September 21, 2015
Ways to Better Educate Patients About the Flu

Influenza season is always a dreaded time, and everyone is anxious to protect themselves and their families from catching the flu. But every year new influenza strains crop up, and some of them spread like wildfire. So it is essential that patients be as educated as possible about the nature of influenza and the proactive measures they can take to guard against catching the flu or spreading it to others.

One of the challenges for health care providers when it comes to influenza education, however, is that many people already feel as though they know everything about it. The flu is so common and has been around for so long, that patients may have a tendency to tune you out when you start talking about it, thinking that there is nothing new to know.

To combat this tendency and better educate patients about the flu, it helps to conduct a year-round informational campaign. Instead of just reminding patients about influenza once or twice a year when flu season rolls around, for example, or talking to them about it when they come to you because they have already contracted it, make it an ongoing conversation. That way your advice will always be in the front of their minds as a gentle and constant reminder.

Free Resources for Flu Education

Another great way to make influenza education more relevant and vivid is to take advantage of information provided by organization such as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

This organization’s expertise is presenting the material in an eye-catching and consumer-friendly way. You can order or download and distribute from the CDC, for example, all kinds of free flyers, booklets, fact sheets, and posters and use those to bolster your year-round patient education initiatives. You’ll also find them in Spanish, which can been a huge help to patients who may be more comfortable with that language.

Be sure to use newsletters, social media connectivity, and other opportunities to dialog with your patients as a way to keep them informed and share with them website links, statistics, and preventative tips. They’ll appreciate your concern and effort and by keeping the issue front and center you’ll be more successful at encouraging them to take the right steps and make the healthy choices regarding influenza prevention and care.

September 8, 2015
Pros and Cons of Email Communication with Patients and Families
As is the case with almost all technologies, the trick is find the right balance in order to utilize them to their full advantage while avoiding the potential pitfalls that usually accompany an over-dependence upon technology. That’s especially true in the digital age, when tools like email are commonplace. But there are also many people who advocate more emphasis on old-fashioned face-to-face communication, particularly when it comes to the relationship between health care providers and patients.
- Health care providers should definitely leverage the power and convenience of email communication, for example, but should so thoughtfully and strategically. Of course, confidentiality and privacy of patient information is of paramount importance, so the first step is to make sure that nothing that falls into that category is ever transmitted by email.
- Even if the patient or family requests it, you have to be consistent in the implementation of those rules and safeguards.
The way to use email with patients is for such things as reminding them of upcoming appointments or to acknowledge the receipt of a question or patient records.
- That saves both you and the patient time and aggravation and can help prevent the hassle of inadvertently missed office visits. You should also use email to convey instructions such as those related to fasting prior to taking lab work blood samples. Email also provides an excellent tool for sending invoices or reminders to make timely payments. ·
- But keep emails short and to the point. More in-depth dialog should occur in person, so that you can more effectively explain procedures, make your diagnosis, and evaluate the overall health and wellness of the patient or address the concerns of family members.
One of the best uses of email these days is to send health and wellness newsletters to patients. You can do this on a monthly, quarterly, or seasonal basis. These communication tools help to build and maintain rapport with the patient, and if the patient shares the tips and information you include that can be a valuable marketing asset, too. There are also affordable but powerful software programs that help you create attractive email templates for basic emails or for newsletters, and many of them have features that let you track metrics such as how many people read them and which patients responded to them or forwarded them on to their friends and family.
August 31, 2015
How to Better Educate Patients About Diabetes

A recent study found that half of all Americans are pre-diabetic or already have full-blown diabetes. Diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions in the United States, thanks to increases in the number of people who are overweight or obese and the ongoing decline in healthy, nutritious diets. Fortunately, diabetes can be prevented through lifestyle. To educate patients about diabetes is a crucial step in helping curb the epidemic.

Educate Patients about Diabetes and Diet

Many people are not aware of how unhealthy their regular diet happens to be, for example, and many consumers don’t even know how to properly read the mandatory food labels included on all packaged food. So one good place to start is with education about diabetes that is based on teaching patients more about diet, nutrition, and how to be a more informed consumer at grocery stores and restaurants.

Free Resources for Diabetes Education

You can also take full advantage of the free resources provided by organizations and agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, which operates the National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP). At the NDEP website, for example, you’ll find many helpful and educational resources, including a variety of different publications. There is even information for health care professionals to show you more effective strategies and tips for health care delivery to patients who have diabetes.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is another great resource where you can advocate toolkits, printed materials, and find out about local outreach programs that your patient can take advantage of to learn more. The ADA offers free information about managing diabetes, food and fitness, the symptoms and warnings of diabetes, and it also provides a community of others living with diabetes that patients can connect with for more learning and support.

Diabetes Education is Diabetes Prevention

As with many diseases, education can be the best form of prevention, so make information available to all of your patients and make diabetes education a cornerstone of your health care practice. Once people have a better understanding of the risk of diabetes and the connection to daily habits like eating, drinking, and exercising it becomes much easier for them to make smart choices.

June 28, 2015