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Communication Skills

© Yasser Anathallee

You must have heard that 60% of the diagnosis can be obtained from proper history taking from a patient. Some even venture to say that its 80%! Therefore, being able to gather information from a patient is extremely important in medicine. To be able to carry this out efficiently, a good knowledge of how to communicate with a patient is crucial. In this article we will consider some webpages which offer advice and information about communication skills.

If what I have already said has not convinced you about the importance of communication skills, this webpage will hopefully do so: http://www.wansford.co.uk/skills/skills2... This page gives details about the importance of communication skills and details of courses for health professionals to learn more about this topic. It starts by answering the question "Why bother to learn communication skills?" Then explains "What can studying communication skills offer us as practising GPs?"

http://www.biols.susx.ac.uk/crcpog/commu... Here it talks more specifically about a specific trial undertaken, but scroll down to the 'Evaluation' subheading to find recommendations of some behaviours that doctors should adopt.

The next series of links are from the same site, but they answer different questions all relevant to communication skills in the medical context. I have listed the most relevant articles, but you can always carry out a search on the site for additional articles. How Much Do Doctors Learn About Communication In Medical School? http://www.bestdoctors.com/en/askadoctor...

What Is A Good Approach For Communicating With Patients? http://www.bestdoctors.com/en/askadoctor...

How Can Doctors Improve Their Communication Skills? http://www.bestdoctors.com/en/askadoctor...

Now, to find out how you may be assessed on your own communication skills or what is expected from you, see a 'Communication skills rating scale' on this webpage: http://www.hop.man.ac.uk/Ume/Scales/Comm...

If ever you've become so engrossed about communication skills and would like to buy a book on the subject, check this out: http://www.oup-usa.org/isbn/034066309X.h...