Helping Patients Understand Risks: 7 Simple Strategies for Successful Communication, 2nd Edition - Softcover

Paling Ph.D., John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0964223678 ISBN 13: 9780964223677

Publisher: The Risk Communication Institute, 2006

Synopsis

This easy-to-read book shows busy healthcare professionals how simple decision aids can help patients - and themselves.

It first reviews the real reasons that patients often struggle to understand the facts about their risks and then offers a "tool box" of practical strategies that have the potential to significantly improve the effectiveness of the process. The author also claims that, in addition to more effectively communicating numbers, sharing visual aids with patients also serves as a valuable tool to strengthen doctor-patient partnerships.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

This book provides a fresh approach - including specially designed visual aids - for all those who want to be more effective at communicating risks with patients.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

LESSONS FROM OTHER PROFESSIONS

If anyone still needs convincing about the value of a fresh approach to risk communication in healthcare, consider this: From the perspective of risk communicators in other disciplines, doctors are definitely the odd group out.

In every other industry where risks have to be explained to the public (e.g. chemical, nuclear, food and water) there is widespread awareness that it is not an easy task and that there can be costly consequences when it is done poorly. As a result, there are usually only a very few spokespeople who do risk communication on behalf of their industries and they are all very highly trained.

In contrast, in healthcare (where incidentally, the risks are usually far greater and far more uncertain and complex) almost every clinician in the world communicates risks to patients and virtually none of them have had any training for it whatsoever! It is not formally taught in medical schools and although a few specialist groups such as The Society for Medical Decision Making do offer their members academic courses in the field1, to the best of my knowledge, this is the only book that focuses on communicating risks to individual patients.

In fact, in my opinion risk communication in healthcare is still in the Dark Ages. Young doctors learn their skills like apprentices in a medieval guild. They just pick up what to do by watching the master craftsman. There is rarely any formal training or any awareness of how their profession is behind the times compared to others. Here is another striking fact that drives that point home.

All professional journalists and television producers who want to show the significance of numbers in the media are trained to use visual aids such as pie charts or graphs. In contrast, in healthcare there has been no tradition for using visual aids to improve patient understanding of the risk numbers.

Significantly, one of the main ingredients of this book is to introduce visual aids into medical risk communication. This reinforces my belief that a fish from a different sea can bring real value to healthcare professionals.

It is always a temptation for doctors to fall back on the same mental approach that is comfortable and reflects how MDs think about risks within the profession. The challenge, of course, is for the clinician to communicate in the way that the patient is most likely to understand. To do this, it is imperative that the physician has insight into the patient's needs and perspective.

This book starts by outlining the many challenges to effectively communicating risks to patients and then moves on to suggest solutions. QUOTE:

John Paling stresses the importance for doctors to "seek first to understand and then to be understood." Then, in that light, he offers his unique visual aids to answer patients' needs. A marvelous, practical contribution.

Stephen R. Covey, author, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Edition details

• Publisher: The Risk Communication Institute
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0964223678
• ISBN 13: 9780964223677
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 208