“‘You are a very different doctor,’” he said patients have told him. “‘You listen.’”
Fellow meeting attendee Jillian Rose, LCSW, assistant director for community engagement, diversity and research at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, said it’s important to understand the values of patients, not just the values of the healthcare field.
“Our patient wants dignity and respect. So no matter what’s happening in the context of our busy-ness, dignity and respect are something that none of us opt out of,” Ms. Rose said.
Another audience member said that although she agrees that listening more is a key to better patient care, taking the time isn’t something that’s modeled well in graduate medical education and wondered “how to break down that wall.”
Dr. Hahn said giving a patient the blank piece of paper she talked about previously can help with this: She can leave to see another patient, and when she returns, Dr. Hahn said she and the patient are often armed with more information that they can use as care moves forward.
Also, pausing before walking in to see a patient or walking into the hospital can help keep you in the moment, she said.
Still, Dr. Hahn acknowledged that making time can be a challenge. “It’s a work in progress, even for myself.”
Thomas R. Collins is a freelance writer living in South Florida.
