Unlocking the secret

It is a long established fact that communication is a key factor to the success of any venture. Yet, it is often overlooked, even in healthcare set ups where it has an extremely vital role to play. ‘Communicate. Care. Cure. A Guide to Healthcare Communication’, a book put together by the teams at Bangalore Baptist Hospital and Mudra Institute of Communications in Ahmedabad, seeks to highlight this fact and give insights on the role of communication in effective healthcare.

The book begins with a foreword from the eminent cardiac surgeon and healthcare entrepreneur, Dr Devi Shetty. He says, “This book…is like a Google map for a society that has lost direction”. Thus, it raises high hopes with such a glorious recommendation, lures you to read it and…keeps you hooked!

The title of the book itself is an indication of this fact and gives the readers a clear idea about its content and objectives. The book has 10 chapters dealing with crucial issues in effective communication, wherein each chapter is dealt by a different author/s. Written in simple, lucid language which can be easily understood and assimilated by its readers, the book, a guide in effective communication, has managed to hit the right note and communicate exactly what it wants to convey. The topics covered in each chapter are also very pertinent and comprises issues that arise in day-to-day dealings between the various stakeholders in a hospital i.e. the patients, their families, doctors, nurses, technicians, healthcare administrators and support staff.

Dr Alexander Thomas and Elizabeth Rajan, the authors of the first chapter, ‘First Impressions Matter: Creating Memorable Experiences for Patients’, very succinctly brings to light how essential it is to create a favourable first impression for patients coming to the hospital in order to ensure to create trust in their minds and retain them. They also list down six guidelines for the hospital staff to promote and propagate the right idea about the hospital and its services.

The next two chapters, ‘Verbal Communication Styles: The Role of Assertiveness in Healthcare Communication’ and ‘Actions Speak Louder than Words: Nonverbal Communication:’ by Dr V Kingsley R Gnanadurai are all about being a good communicator through words and action. The author gives various examples of good and bad verbal communication, with suggestions on the right way to use your words to give the right effect and impact. He also gives an insight on good non-verbal communication through eye contact, body language, tone and volume of voice and even silence.

The fourth chapter, ‘Listening with Undivided Attention: An Effective Prescription for Healing’, authored by Dr Ajay Shetty concentrates on listening with all your senses to distinguish and make the difference between curing and healing. The fifth chapter by Mercy Christudas, Gory Dennis and Dr Gnanadurai, is all about removing the barriers hindering effective communication in healthcare and hence is aptly titled as ‘Bridging the Gap: Removing Communication Barriers in Hospital Settings’.

The sixth and the seventh chapters, titled ‘Tread with Care: Breaking Bad News to Patients, Their Family and Relatives’, and ‘Sorry Works: The Disclosure of Medical Errors’ are penned by Dr Rajnish Samal and Dr Ajay Shetty respectively, and deal with the challenges of disclosing bad news and the effective means to deal with them as well as owning up to the mistakes that have happened and going about the right way to rectify them to lessen the negative impact.

While the other chapters teach about things to do to communicate well, chapter eight, authored by Dr Badari Datta, is all about what not to do. Hence it is aptly named as ‘Knowing Where to Draw the Line: What Constitutes Unacceptable Communication’. Chapter nine is called ‘In the Spirit of Please and Thank You: Courtesy and Etiquette’, wherein authors Dr Narendra S and Dr Ajay Shetty teach the value of courtesy and etiquette as well as its role in healthcare settings. The last chapter, by Sunny Kuruvilla, is on addressing the challenges in a hospital’s intra-communication and hence is called as ‘Hospital Talk: How Communication Flows in Healthcare Organisations’. The prologue and epilogue, written by Dr Nagesh Rao, connects each chapter and binds them together to give a very good flow to the book.

Apart from simple, easy to understand and unambiguous language and content, the book is also filled with various illustrations of real life scenarios, conversations and graphs that the readers can easily identify with and understand and hence they effectively assist in conveying the right information and message.

Another noteworthy factor is that the book is written for healthcare professionals by healthcare professionals – different members of Bangalore Baptist Hospital, including their Director, doctors, nurses, a pharmacist and a chief administrative officer was involved in its creation and it is filled with their own experiences and learning.

The editing of the book also deserves a mention, especially since it had multiple authors and yet good and effective editing by Dr Alexander Thomas and Dr Nagesh Rao has ensured consistency and uniformity of content without detracting from the authors’ individual styles.

Thus, the book is an excellent example of good teamwork and communication and it would be apt to reiterate Dr Devi Shetty’s words, “This book, on how to improve communication to improve healthcare, will, without doubt, help achieve that goal.” It would indeed serve as a very efficient guide for a wide range of readers – healthcare providers, administrators, policy makers, medical students, teachers, etc to improve their communication for the best interests of those they all aim to serve – the patients.

[email protected]