How to Make Patients Listen

Posted: Thu, Sep 25, 2014 08:34

Ryderman and Tornkist said, “The more patients are involved in their care, the higher their adherence to their treatment and their satisfaction with their care and outcome.”

A successful discharge experience means that patients understand what you tell them. They won’t understand if they don’t listen, and they won’t listen if they don’t care – or if they feel like they have no input.

Consider This:

Get Patients Involved

Encourage the use of a smart journal. Give it to the patient so that they can take note of symptoms, medications, appointments, results, and questions they have. I call this patient engagement. Every day, we want to teach patients essential home care skills: guidelines for proper medication, diet, techniques for proper dressing, necessary wound care, and a variety of pain care strategies. They need to be coached to ask questions now, so they will be comfortable when they go home. Preparing patients for going home should be a daily practice!

Make three critical statements at Admitting:

1. We’ll make sure you have family or a friend who’ll look after you every day when you come home. Do you have someone in mind to do that?
2. We’ll prepare you to know about all about any new medications you’ll continue to take after your stay with us.
3. And, “We’ll send you home with a packet of written information, everything you need to know about your safety at home.

Set a positive expectation with a patient, alert them that they’re going to have this experience at the time of discharge, and during the post discharge phone call.

Repeat Critical Information

Any teacher will tell you the key to learning is this: hear something, get it, take a break, hear it again, get it, take a break, hear it a third time, and AHA! That’s it, I got it. Use the speaker’s mantra: tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them.

Clarity and simplicity are absolutely crucial. Beware of information overload; you want to limit the number of topics for education. Information in small bites beats a big banquet of facts every time. Information overload results in poor retention. In fact, visual tools and props are very important in this regard, because different patients have different learning styles. Graphics, diagrams, scale models, a white board, handy drawing paper, all are invaluable. Sometimes a quick sketch can be worth a thousand words.

Eliminate Distractions

When teaching after care strategies, you want to eliminate distractions. Close the door, draw the curtains for privacy. Make this information a very big deal, just like we talked about in Medication Communication. If it looks and sounds routine, your message won’t sink in. They’ll daydream, be distracted. Above all, keep their attention. Sit next to the patient, don’t stand or hover over them. Make good eye contact. Avoid unnecessary medical jargon; your patients may not know what you’re talking about, and they may not want to ask (or admit that they didn't understand). Be sure instructions are clear. Don’t be afraid to use an interpreter or communication device if you need one!

The Take Away:

I frequently quote Tony Buzan, who said, “93% of what you learn in a classroom is forgotten within 14 days.” Come up with techniques that keep patients engaged in the healing process. You have to set people up to ask the right questions, because no one will absorb all the information if communication is one-way. Make them listen so that they can understand.

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