Some time ago I read an article on communication. It was, in the dry prose of a medical journal article, a reminder for doctors to spend time on talking. The lecture about communication can drone on and fill the pages of the academic journals. It isn't easy to follow.
Listen to our real stories, though, and you'll tell what we don't know the patients don't know.
A friend of mine recently shared a story on the Facebook. She is working in the medical outpatient clinic, where elderly patients aren't quite sure where they should go, what the doctors say, or what they should ask the doctors. Near the end of a busy clinic day, the doctor glanced at his wristwatch, the steady sweep of the second hand ticking off precious time. For one thing, the doctor was hungry. For another, he thought he had covered everything except the instruction for his patient to return for blood test.
The doctor wrote on the blood test sheet: "One week before the clinic appointment fasting blood test."
The patient picked up the paper, and was startled. This was obviously an instruction she'd not been expecting. She stared at the doctor. "But, doc, how can that be the case? I would have died of starvation if I follow your instruction - to fast for one week before my scheduled blood test."
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