LISTENING AND HEALTHCARE

Listening and Healthcare

Shannon Sistrunk

Mississippi College

Dr. Ziegler

Introduction

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines pain as “suffering or distress of body or mind”. When a person is experiencing pain it interferes with their ability to communicate. Normal patterns of verbal and nonverbal communication are altered. Listening skills is something that has been emphasized in the medical field for nearly 2,500 years. Professors in medical schools have been attempting to teach their students to be better listeners to their patients. (Holmes, 2007) If listening is something that has been emphasized in the medical field for 2,500 years then why the feelings that doctors are not listening to their patients? According to Frischenschlager and Pucher (2002) it is because describing pain to a physician falls solely on the patient.The Physician most often lacks the skills to read the patients nonverbal, voice, and so on; therefore problems with communication between doctor and patient are a frequent.

This paper seeks to explore the relationship between the healthcare provider and the patient, highlighting the difficulty that both have when communicating about pain issues; more specifically improving listening skills on behalf of the patient and the provider. Also to show that while much has been done to encourage physicians to improve their listening skills there is still a breakdown in the process.

The most frequent complaint among patients is pain, there are an estimated 30 million people in the US alone suffering with chronic pain. (Baird, Fanciullo, Sorensen, Washington, 2008)Most of the time the only tool a physician uses to access a patients pain is have them rate their pain on a scale of 1(being no pain) to 10 (being severe pain). This (as well as other scales are under scrutiny for their lack of patient interaction, the scale does not take into account the fact that pain is a very personable experience and must be treated as such. (Crichton, 2001)

Nearly 7% of the US population deals with chronic pain, and therefore it is a definite concern within the healthcare community. This is a problem that costs the healthcare industry and the US people billions of dollars each year. Not only is the issue of chronic pain management and how to deal effectively with the pain and manage the costs; there is also the high occurrence of opiate dependence among some of those 7 %.( US Department of Commerce)

Pain is a personal experience which can occur in very different qualities and strengths. Pain cannot be measured or quantified. Therefore in assessing the pain of a patient, the Healthcare Provider is dependent on the verbal description, nonverbal expressions and empathy. “Problems with the communication between doctor and patient are a frequent result”. (Frischenschlager, Pucher, 2002)

Pain is generally thought of for what it is, pain; a warning that something that is wrong with your body. It is not often thought of that there are not various kinds of pain, acute or chronic, nor do people realize the impacts of this pain on the lives of the people involved. People who are ...