Patient-Practitioner Interpersonal skills

Interpersonal skills – skills that are used between people who are attempting to communicate with each other.

• Non-verbal communication – the message is conveyed through a person’s body.
• Verbal communication – it is related to speech.

Non-verbal communication

1. Paralanguage – speed, tone, volume, fluency of speech.
2. Facial expressions – how emotions are conveyed.
3. Gestures – hand movements, shrugging shoulders (must be aware of cultural differences.)
4. Physical proximity
5. Appearance – dress.

ARGYLE (1975) suggested that non-verbal communication is more effective than verbal communication because it:

• Assists speech
• Replaces speech
• Signals attitudes
• Signals emotional states

MCKINSTRY and WANG (1991) found out that people, who preferred formally dressed doctors were older in age or from the professional class.

• 11% of patients said that doctor’s dress was VERY important
• 53% of patients said that doctor’s dress was QUITE important

For more detailed information –McKinstry and Wang (1991)

Verbal Communication

It is based around speech and used by doctors to gain information about the patient’s condition and communicate the possible treatments available.

MCKINLAY (1975) found out that health workers and doctors use medical language to look more knowledgeable, important and keep the conversations brief. On the other hand, patients are afraid to ask questions if they don’t comprehend a word because they don’t want to look stupid and uneducated.

• 39% of women understood the medical jargon used.
• The women had a far better understanding than the doctors expected.

For more detailed information – McKinlay (1975)

LEY (1998) found out that patient recall of verbal communication was improved by:

• Categorisation 
• Signposting
• Summarising 
• Repetition
• Use of diagrams
• Primacy effect 

For more detailed information – Ley (1998)