Doctors feel frustrated, even betrayed, when patients withhold pertinent information. Yet patients who use alternative medicine, for example, may not tell their doctors for fear of ridicule or being labeled as flaky or gullible. Yet we are less dependent on the doctor for information and decision making. All these changes are unsettling for both doctors and patients. Then there s the blame factor.
Doctors often blame patients when communication breaks down.
But researchers have found that many doctors have shaky interviewing skills. Patients who were allowed to state their concerns without interruption used only an average of 6 more seconds. Doctors often ignore the patient s emotional health. A study of 21 doctors at an urban, university-based clinic found that when patients dropped emotional clues or talked openly about emotions, the doctor seldom acknowledged their feelings. Instead the conversation was directed back to technical talk.