Do Doctors’ Communication Skills Affect Patient Health?
Margarita Michalsky
Montana State University
Exploring Communications Studies 200 [ April 19, 2014 ]
Dr. Daniel D. Gross

Abstract

One of the biggest complaints that a patient has is their inability to effectively communicate with their physician. A patients’ fear and intimidation of their physician can prevent them from being forthcoming about their symptoms and lifestyle behaviors. In addition, the lack of effective listening that the physician possesses can also limit the patients’ ability to express their needs. Effective communication is imperative to the health outcomes of the patient and this paper will look at how the communication style of the patient’s physician can affect those outcomes.

Do Doctors’ Communication Skills Affect Patient Health? Healthcare is always in the news. You cannot turn on your television or pick up a newspaper without seeing something about healthcare. One of the main topics of discussion is the quality of healthcare that patients are receiving from their physicians. However, quality is not solely based on the knowledge of the patient’s physician; it can be also based on the ability of the patient to effectively communicate with their physician. Patients complain that they cannot effectively talk with their physicians because they are either intimidated or they do not feel their physician actually listens to what they say. Thus, do doctors’ communication skills affect the patient’s health outcome?
The articles used for this paper reflected the possible answers to this question. ‘Physician Sociality Communication and Its Effect on Patient Satisfaction’ by Chas D. Koermer and Meghan Kilbane discusses how a patients’ physicians communication style affects how the patient feels about the doctor and if they are satisfied with the care that they