title: Active listening: more than just paying attention.
abstract: Communication skills courses are an essential component of undergraduate and postgraduate training and effective communication skills are actively promoted by medical defence organisations as a means of decreasing litigation. This article discusses active listening, a difficult discipline for anyone to practise, and examines why this is particularly so for doctors. It draws together themes from key literature in the field of communication skills, and examines how these theories apply in general practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Practice, University of Melbourne, Victoria. k.robertson@unimelb.edu.au
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Robertson
mesh_terms: D001307:Auditory Perception; D001364:Awareness; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003142:Communication; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000379:methods; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations