Medical jobs rank among the most important and stressful careers out there. Not only do you need to have good technical skills and a deep knowledge base, but you also need good emotional and physical resilience, as well as great people and teamwork skills to do your job well.
Doing your job well, but lacking empathy, will only get you so far in your career. Meanwhile, being incredibly empathetic but not having the necessary skills to back up your aspirations is also an issue.
Assuming that you’ve already got the right knowledge and skill set as a medical professional, you still need to make sure that your bedside manner is up to scratch. The good news is that emotional intelligence is something that can be learned through practice.
According to the American College of Physicians, good bedside manner means developing active listening skills, being good at nonverbal active listening, proper verbal communication, and paying attention to detail.
Your patients are often in a vulnerable situation, so you need to cultivate empathy and connect with their story.
Meanwhile, according to the Physician Alliance of Connecticut (PACT), no matter how much medicine changes, the one thing that stays stable is that doctors deliver compassionate and patient-focused care.
However, there are challenges. PACT warns that medical professionals can find it hard to pay close attention to every patient due to short appointments, understaffing issues, long work hours, and compassion fatigue.
Here’s how you can improve your bedside manner, according to PACT:
- Listen to your patients’ needs attentively
- Make sure that your patients feel knowledgeable about their health
- Ensure that your patients know where to find more sound information about their medical care
- Accept the fact that bedside manner requires practice and is more than just being a nice person
- Intentionally learn more about compassion and empathy
- Use the right language to connect with your patients and build trust
- Focus on the patient during your interaction with them
“However, both verbal and non-verbal cues can give tremendous insight into symptoms, state of mind, the likelihood of compliance, and any other issues the patient may be reluctant to ask about. Researchers found that it typically takes a doctor only 11 seconds to interrupt a patient, and patients who don’t have more to share only speak for around 6 seconds. That’s why it’s essential to listen to patients and avoid interruption,” PACT explains.
Bedside manner training can be very diverse. For example, you might be urged to always introduce yourself to your patients or to avoid medical jargon so that you’re on the same page.
On the other hand, you might be asked to take part in improv classes so that you learn how to respond to unexpected situations.
The latter can yield some really good results.
