Brush up your communication skills
How important are communication skills?
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There are half a million consultations between GPs and their patients in the UK every working day, with plenty more in secondary care.
Think
How important are our communication skills? Which are more important, communication skills or clinical skills?
Their success or otherwise of a consultation depends not only on the doctors’ clinical knowledge and technical skills, but also on the nature of the relationship that exists between doctor and patient, together with the communication between them.
I'd suggest that good communication skills and good clinical skills are equally important - neither is a lot of use without the other.
Example
If a patient doesn't tell you about her anterior chest ache, knowing how to treat an MI won't help her.
However, if you don't know how to manage an MI, super consultation skills won't help her prognosis.
Similarly, when the patient goes home, she needs to be on the right medication - but if you haven't discussed the reasons for the tablets with her, or her own beliefs about them, she may not take them.
Next page: How important? The GMC's view
Study guide by: Michael Harris (Department of General Practice, Bath).
Last updated: 31 October 2005