Patients and Interpersonal Communication

Question 1

What is patient centered care (PCC)?

Answer 1

The patient initiates their care. Usually due to them not feeling well, noticing something is wrong, or they want a yearly physical.

Question 2

What does EBM stand for?

Answer 2

Evidence Based Medicine

Question 3

Like EBM, PCC is focused on what?

Answer 3

Focused on the individual patient. They go together. Without PCC, there is no EBM.

Question 4

Goals need to be established…

Answer 4

…WITH the patient, not for the patient.

Question 5

What is the goal of PCC?

Answer 5

To develop a relationship that is open. This will allow us to find out what is important to the patient and what they are looking to get out of their healthcare.

Question 6

Why is PCC important?

Answer 6

• patients are afraid to ask questions
• patients do not understand the goals of their therapy or the impact of their medications
• patients are often the only ones who know if their treatment is working
• patients will make their own decisions about their care

Question 7

What is the key to PCC?

Answer 7

open communication

Question 8

What percentage of patient and caregivers are not aware of any safety warnings about their medications?

Answer 8

62%

*The ones that do know there are warnings do not know what the warning is about

Question 9

What percentage of patients are unaware of the possibility of a severe reaction or side effect?

Answer 9

10%

Question 10

What percentage of healthcare providers report their patients adhere to their treatment plan? What percentage of patients report high to very high adherence?

Answer 10

• 85% of providers say their patients are adherent

* However, only 56% are high to very high in adherence

Question 11

What can an effective communications process do?

Answer 11

It can OPTIMIZE the chances that patients will make informed decisions, use medication appropriately, and ultimately meet their therapeutic goals.

Question 12

What are the two primary functions of communication?

Answer 12

• establishes the ongoing relationship between you and your patients
• provides the exchange of information necessary to assess your patients’ health conditions, reach decisions on treatment plans, implement the plans, and evaluate the effects of treatment on your patients’ quality of life

Question 13

What does the box represent in the primary interpersonal communication model?

Answer 13

Each box is a person

Question 14

What is the message or feedback loop?

Answer 14

The conversation or communication between two people. For example, it can be between a patient and a pharmacist, or a pharmacist and a doctor, etc.

Question 15

You are not only a sender, but also a receiver at the same time. How?

Answer 15

Mostly through non-verbal communication. Are you making eye contact or are you looking at your phone? What non-verbal messages are you sending?

Question 16

Just because a message is sent, doesn’t mean it was received. What can prevent this from happening?

Answer 16

Barriers. Sometimes the message is received differently than we intended. Perhaps there is noise, or difficulty in hearing. Perhaps we misinterpreted an email or text message.

Question 17

What are the 5 steps of the communication process?

Answer 17

• sender has an idea to communicate
• sender encodes the idea in a message (within their mind)
• the message travels over a channel (text, email, call, speaking)
• the receiver decodes the message (reading, hearing, seeing and decides what it means and how to interpret it)
• the receiver understands the message and sends feedback to the sender (the process then restarts)

Question 18

True/False

The communication process is a continuous, non-stop loop.

Answer 18

True

Question 19

Is the message sent always the message received?

Answer 19

Not always–sometimes the barriers, misinterpretations, and noise keep this from happening.

Question 20

What factors impact whether a message is received properly?

Answer 20

• way the message was sent
• mood
• relationship
• language barriers
• hearing ability
• many more, but these are good examples

Question 21

How do we know if our message is received properly?

Answer 21

We need feedback to make sure the receiver understood. Perhaps ask them to repeat the message or give a summary.