What Soft Skills Help Make a Good Doctor–Patient Relationship?

In our daily work, we often find that in addition to the necessary medical technology, a truly good doctor pays more attention to whether the doctor is easy to talk, listen to his complaints, and help him solve the urgent needs of his health. Therefore, doctors with empathy and humanistic care are generally recognized by patients. What medical devices cannot do is to have empathy like humans. When it comes to interpersonal relationships, medical devices become autistic patients who focus on themselves and are isolated from reality. For example, when a young doctor was looking for a patient's family member to sign an informed consent form for surgery, he was impatient to explain it to the family member. Instead, he leaned on the door frame of the ward and said stiffly: “sign it, your mom can't do the operation without signing it!” It resulted the dissatisfaction and complaints from the patients. If you tell the patient’s family members that if the homework is checked and signed by the parent, I believe that the student will feel gratified with the love in the homework. Maybe patient’s family members will sign it immediately.

Good doctor-patient communication can greatly improve work efficiency, fully gain the trust of patients and their families, and avoid many unnecessary problems or disputes. Sharp tools make good work. The following communication skills may work in the clinical frontline, and make your work twice the result with half the effort.

Many patients feel that the doctor’s pre-operation check is unnecessary, and they are arbitrarily avoiding the check. It can be compared to: If you are going to drive, you must first check whether the engine, brakes and other parts are defective. Otherwise, rushing to drive will inevitably lead to a serious car accident.  The preoperative examination is to assess your risk and is a necessary measure to ensure your safety.

Talk to the patient’s family before the operation and explain that the adjacent organs may be damaged during the operation: if two dumplings are close together, they will not break when separated; but if they are stuck together, the dumplings will be broken and sticky when separated. The tighter it is, the easier it is to break. When human organs are stuck together, they may also cause damage during surgery. The damage is related to the degree of adhesion of the patient during the operation, and has nothing to do with the doctor's technique!

Surgery is usually expensive, and many patient complaints that it costs too much, you are collecting black money. Helplessly explained: New York houses are expensive, right? But you can’t blame the migrant workers on the construction site, right? Our tuition is very expensive, isn’t it? Many students still borrow money to buy surgical suture kits and additional training courses, but you can't complain about the bank lending you a loan, can you?

Before surgery, talking about the risk of blood transfusion and various diseases:  if you win a 5 million lottery ticket for $2, there is a chance, but it is very small.