Communicating well with your healthcare professional, whether it be your first visit or a therapist you have seen for years, is important. When communication is clear and efficient, we increase the chances of receiving accurate diagnoses (from those who can provide such), better treatment plans, and more positive outcomes.
In this article, you will find 3 tips for communicating more effectively with your healthcare provider. By the end of this post, I hope you will find yourself with a more structured approach to conveying your concerns. With these skills, you should be able to minimize your interview time, maximize your treatment time and hopefully feel you are getting more out of your treatments overall!
Tip 1: Prioritize Your Health Concerns
You only have so much time with your healthcare provider. Naturally you want as much of your time with them to be focused on providing you with treatment. If you do not properly communicate your issues however, you greatly increase the chances of receiving an ineffective or even harmful treatment session. Beyond ensuring your intake form is filled out thoroughly before the session – how then do you avoid spending half of your appointment talking about every health concern you have?
I recommend writing down a list of your concerns, organized from most to least concerning. Depending on how much time you have in your session, focus on addressing one to two of those concerns each treatment.
Tip 2: Use the "S.O.L.V.E" Method To Described Your Symptoms
From my experience as a clinician. One of the fastest ways to slow down an initial interview (eh? eh?) is to either not give enough information, or to give too much unnecessary information.
To help give clear, structured information. Try using the S.O.L.V.E method shown in the image to the right. This will help you organize the information your healthcare provider will most likely ask for.
A well structured explanation of your symptoms make it much easier for your healthcare provider to quickly determine what assessment tools to use. This in turn will lead to a shorter interview process and more time getting treated.
For example, “I have a headache that started two days ago. Its a constant throbbing on the left side of my head. It gets worse after working at my desk, and feels better after I sleep.” Vs just saying “I have a headache.”
Tip 3: Stay Organized With Notes
It is common, especially if you have multiple practitioners on file, for you to be given A LOT of information regarding your concern. All to often we run into the issue of people forgetting key pieces of information provided by another practitioner.
By taking notes or requesting written summaries if available, you have something you can reference. Write down what you have been told in regards to diagnosis, expected recovery time, risks vs benefits for treatment plans, and homecare.
Just as important, keep a log of your symptoms. For example if you are getting headaches, record when they happen and how bad they are. This way you can actually see whether your treatment is positively influencing your symptoms or not over time. As an added bonus, it can help to write up any further questions or concerns that come to mind throughout the week to ask at your next session.
Finally, while you are taking notes, make sure to ask questions so you understand what you are being told. In a later post, I will talk about informed consent – but this is your health, it is important that you have a firm grasp on the risks and benefits of any treatment a healthcare provider is offering before agreeing to it.
You've Got This!
There is, of course a number of other things you can do to improve on communication between you and your health professionals. But with just these three things alone: through prioritizing your concerns to be addressed at each session, utilizing a tool like S.O.L.V.E to convey your symptoms in a succinct manner, and taking notes on homecare/logging occurrences of symptoms you should find the interviewing stage of your treatment goes far smoother.
Next time you are going in for an appointment with your Physio, Chiro, RMT, or any other healthcare provider – try some of these steps and see if you notice a difference in your session with them! I know I, and many other practitioners notice when a patient takes a more active role in managing their health plan. It is always a pleasure working with active, well prepared patients!
What have you found helps with smoother, more efficient communication between you and your health team members? Let me know in the comments!
