Making Your Patients More Comfortable

Communication is the keystone to a trusting doctor-patient relationship and effective healthcare. However, human communication is no easy thing. What we often feel should be a simple and straight-forward exchange can be complicated and bogged down by mood, tone, perspective, background, strong emotions, and a hundred other factors at any given time.

As a healthcare provider, it could be argued that you are at a disadvantage before you even walk into an exam room. Patients aren’t often at their best when coming in for a doctor’s visit, and are likely to be stressed, confused, scared, sick, in pain, irritated, and impatient.

As patients grow older, their difficulties and frustrations often increase, and communication can become more and more challenging. There are a few strategies you can employ in your interactions with elderly patients that will help them feel more comfortable, enable you to obtain the information you need, and encourage compliance with instructions and treatments.

1. Start with a quality interaction

Patients need to feel seen and heard, and want to feel that their time with you was well-spent. While you may still need to juggle the demands of record-keeping during your patient conversations, make an effort to show them that this is their time, and that you are committed to making their visit meaningful and helpful.

First impressions matter. The more quality attention you can give your patients at the start of the conversation the better they will feel about their visit.

Minimize as many distractions as possible and sit facing your patient. Patients struggling with loss of hearing may rely on reading your lips to fully understand what you are saying.

Strong eye contact remains one of the most powerful forms of nonverbal communication, and plays a vital role in communicating engagement, building trust, and encouraging honesty.

2. Slower, shorter, louder

You’ll want to communicate information, answers, and instructions as clearly as possible. It may help to use shorter words and sentences, so that you can zero in on the most important elements.

Another helpful practice may be to practice speaking just a little bit slower, and a little bit louder, to make it easier for older patients to hear and understand. However, this advice comes with a caution: the line between “speaking louder” and “patronizing” is astonishingly thin. Always speak to your patients as if they are intelligent adults, no matter the other adjustments needed.

First impressions matter. The more quality attention you can give your patients at the start of the conversation the better they will feel about their visit.

3. One thing at a time

Older patients are likely to be struggling with many different concerns and conditions, and your visits will naturally cover a variety of areas. Make sure you focus on one topic at a time, and have clear transitions when moving on to a new area. This will help your patients focus, which helps them give you clearer answers to your questions. It also helps them to more clearly associate instructions and treatments with each issue, instead of blurring them together and missing important elements, or a sense of urgency.

4. Teach them how to talk to you, and then listen carefully

As a physician, it can occasionally seem as though your patients expect you to be able to read their minds. Providing the best care and treatment plans can hinge on the quantity and quality of information your patients provide. Help them give you the answers you need by taking a little extra time to teach them how to talk to you about what they are experiencing.

It would be beautifully simple if every patient could march into the exam room and calmly recite a list of their symptoms as clearly and concisely as a medial textbook, but individual experience is rarely that straightforward. It is difficult for a patient to identify the source of pain and discomfort when it is so exhausting that it seems to be coming from everywhere. Or to distinguish between the “normal” weariness and discomfort of aging and symptoms of a more serious condition that should be addressed immediately. Patients may feel embarrassed to speak up and share too many details.

Help them find the words to describe what they are feeling, and give them the time they need to express their questions and concerns.

5. Review key takeaways, and write them down

Speaking of instructions, take a moment between topics to repeat the most important items. Older patients need more information than younger generations, but too easily that needed information can become an overwhelming flood. By reviewing key items and takeaways, you will help your patients feel that they are getting the information they need – and that they know where to go from here.

Visual aids such as charts and illustrations are also valuable tools for helping patients comprehend and retain information – especially regarding complex procedures and issues. Give them something they can take home when they leave, so they don’t have to rely on memory alone. This will also help some patients to find more information later if they were too timid or overwhelmed to ask enough questions during the visit.

6. Plan on a little extra time

Recognize that the steps you take to improve communication with your older patients will help, but they will add a few extra minutes to your appointment time. Schedule exams for elderly patients with just a little extra time to ensure you can get through all of the necessary information without having to rush – this will help both you and your patient feel more calm and focused, and the conversation will be more productive.

While it does add a little time to your day, it will benefit your work in the long run. Good communication builds trusting relationships. Patients of any age are more likely to tell you what is going on in their lives when they are comfortable and feel confident that you are listening to them and taking them seriously.