Gezondheidszorg en Luisteren verbinden voor goede zorg!

De Voorzitter van de artsenfederatie KNMG, Rutger Jan van der Gaag, schrijft het in zijn eerste column van dit jaar: http://knmg.artsennet.nl/Dossiers-9/Columns-5/column/Weten-wat-de-patient-wil.htm

Onze autoriteit berust op de kwaliteit van onze zorg. Die kwaliteit zit in de uitkomst van behandelen. Maar ook in onze capaciteit tot voorlichting en communicatie. Zodoende ondersteunen wij de gezondheid en bevorderen we patiëntenparticipatie. Het eerbiedigen van de opvattingen van de patiënt begint bij het zorgvuldig uitvragen en horen van diens wensen. Zo schrijft hij ondermeer.

Al in 2008 werd er uitgebreid geschreven over het belang en de effecten van goede communicatie en vooral luisteren in de gezondheidszorg. Onderstaande samenvatting heb ik gemaakt uit het International Journal of Listening, volume 22, issue 2, 2008

Het wordt echt belangrijk om Gezondheidszorg en Luisteren te verbinden voor goede zorg!  De tijd voor een Nederlands onderzoek op het gebied van de effecten en belang van gezondheidszorgcommunicatie, in het bijzonder luisteren, is wat mij betreft nu echt gerechtvaardigd.

The goal of healthcare is to promote health, prevent illness and injury, and help patients and their families manage medical conditions through counseling, medication, and therapeutic interventions. Patients trust healthcare providers with confidential and intimate information essential for the formulation of medical diagnoses and appropriate care. This intimacy allows healthcare providers to prod and poke in the most sensitive of physical and psychological spaces. Developing a therapeutic relationship with the healthcare provider may be challenged by the limited amount of time that a provider can spend with any given patient. Often physicians, nurse practitioners, and other healthcare practitioners see as many as four or five patients in one hour. The time spent in appointments with patients includes interviewing the patient, taking notes, performing a patient examination, and writing the patients’ care plans. If the provider uses highly directed questioning and treatment prescription without the exchange of sufficient information, the patient’s medical history may be incomplete, the condition may be misdiagnosed, and the patient may lose trust.

Communication becomes an important, if not the primary, element in provider and patient relationships. 
Fortunately, some of these issues have opened avenues for change in healthcare relationships. In recent decades, healthcare relationships have evolved from a paternalistic model to a partnership between provider and patient. Patients are increasingly more informed and participatory in decisions that impact their health. Many patients, as active participants, require providers to be more capable of listening. Due to this open avenue of change, questions are being asked within the healthcare industry: Are healthcare providers effective listeners? What are the barriers to effective listening in healthcare?

The idea that communication is an essential component of patient-practitioner interaction is not new but has only recently been framed as a skill and expectation of medical professionals. To come full circle with listening and effective healthcare interactions, the Patients’ Bill of Rights strongly supports the more active role of the patient in participating in their healthcare decisions.
 Considering the social changes that have been taking place due to public’s desire to take more control over their medical decisions and options, it follows that scholars in healthcare fields would be interested in how providers communicate within the patient-provider relationship.