Week 1: Good Communication Flashcards
What are the importance of communication in health care?
- Better understanding of the patient’s problem
- Promotes awareness of physical, social and emotional impact of specific problems on patient’s quality of life to enable holistic care
- Effective communication between health care provider and patient
What are the barriers to communication?
- Perception
- Culture
- Language
- Communication-channel
List noise barriers in communication and give one example
- Sender: language barrier
- Receiver: misinterpretation of question
- External: phone ringing
- Unavoidable: urgent phone calls
- Avoidable: mobile phones
What are the attending behaviour vs non-attending behaviour?
- Facial expression
- Body language
- Vocal tone
What are the elements contributing to successful or failure in communication?
- Surroundings
- Continuity
- S.O.L.E.R
What does S.O.L.E.R stand for?
S = squarely faced
O = open body posture
L = leaning forward
E = eye contact
R = relax
List 6 factors for developing rapport
- Posture
- Eye Contact
- Body Language
- Vocal Qualities
- Verbal tracking
- Silence
Explain non-verbal communication
All communication apart from words
Lists 6 non-verbal communication
- Body contact
- Body movements
- Gestures
- Posture
- Facial expressions
- Paralanguage
What are the three basic listening modes and define them
- Competitive listening
- More interested in promoting their own point of view - Attentive listening
- Genuinely interested in hearing & understanding the other’s point of view - Active listening
- The listener fully concentrates, understands, responds & remembers what is being said
List 5 factors that can help improve active listening and define them.
- Paraphrasing
- Using different words to clarify meaning - Reflecting feelings
- Expressing the essence of the feelings you are hearing - Reflecting meaning
- Give feedback
- Providing advice without any judgement - Listen more than talking
What are the benefits of active listening?
- If a misunderstanding has occurred, it will be identified immediately and communication can be clarified
- Helps people to spot flaws in their reasoning
What should be in the identifying data?
- Name
- Gender
- Age
- Date of birth
- Name of GP
- Contact details
- Occupation
- Family/social situation
How should you begin each optometry consultation with a patient-centred approach? Briefly explain each section.
- Set the Stage
- Welcome the px while directing them to the examination chair and use the px’s name
- Introduce & identify yourself - Set the Agenda
- Use open-ended questions and understand their chief complaints
- Clarify the patient’s expectations for this visit - Elicit the Patient’s Story
- Return to open-ended questions directed at major problems - Make the Transition
- Summarise interview and verbalise intention
How to deal with chief complaints?
- Brief description of the reason for px’s visit
- Usually stated in the px’s own words
- Begin with the ‘W’ questions: when, what, where & how frequently
- Record accurately
What mnemonic could you use for documenting a chief complaint?
FOLDARQ or LOFTSEA
What does FOLDARQ stand for and explain briefly.
- Frequency: how often is it happening?
- Onset: when did it happen?
- Location: which area? Is it affecting both your vision?
- Duration: has long has it lasted? Have you noticed any improvements?
- Associated signs and symptoms
- Relieving Factors: environment/medication
- Quality: how severe on a scale of 1 to 10
What does LOFTSEA stand for?
- Location
- Onset
- Frequency
- Type
- Self-treatment
- Effect on px
- Associated signs & symptoms
What are three parts which are important in taking patient case history? Explain what each sections consist of.
- Past personal
- current medication, allergies, past medical history/injuries/surgeries - Family
- present or past ocular conditions
- immediate and close relatives history are important - Social
- employment, hobbies, visual needs
What are some clinical pearls?
- Clinician should explain the scope & purpose of the interview
- Provide patient confidentiality
- Accurate communication required
- Use open-ended questions
- Listen effectively: sensitive topics
- Examine children with adult guardian present
- Examine elderly with a family member present
