Examining Interpersonal Skills in the Patient-Practitioner Relationship

Examining Interpersonal Skills in the Patient-Practitioner Relationship

In 1984, two researchers named Beckman and Frankel taped 74 office

consultations involving doctors and their patients. It came to their

notice that surprisingly doctors were not particularly good listeners.

The doctors who took part within this study had shockingly terrible

listening skills and this lead to some very interesting results for

Beckman and Frankel.

Beckman and Frankel found that, in responding to the doctors' opening

questions, patients were able to speak for an average of just 18

seconds before being interrupted.

Therefore, at least one patient was allowed to talk on about their

condition for nearly two-and-a-half minutes before the doctor cut him

off. That means that, to achieve the 18-second average, that Beckman

and Frankel recorded quite a few consultations must have been

extremely simplistic. The doctor probably gave them a few seconds to

tell them what their problem was without even listening to their

actual problem.

doctors often interrupt patients after the initial concern, apparently

assuming that the first complaint is the chief one, yet the order in

which patients present their problems is not related to their clinical

importance

the longer the doctor waits before interrupting at the beginning of

the interview, the more likely she is to discover the full spread of

issues that the patient wants to discuss and the less likely will it

be that new complaints arise at the end of the interview (Beckman and

Frankel 1984)

Consequently within this study two types of interpersonal skills were

being portrayed; questioning skills and listening skills.

Interrupting people is not only bad manners; it also robs doctors (and

lawyers) of important benefits often gained from letting patients and

clients talk:

· Listening saves time and helps you achieve better results. By

getting the whole story up front, you can avoid "misdiagnoses" and

going off on wild goose chases. (I make this point knowing full well

that, in some law firms, billings for misdiagnoses make the payments

on the firm's condo in Oceanside, and "Wild goose law" might as well