Thoughts on communication.
Living without the ability to communicate is humbling. Time spent on a sabbatical in Florence, Italy, taught me that my outgoing manner, my interactional skills, and my ability to establish rapport, all personality traits and skills that I thought would overcome my inadequacies as a communicator in Italian are not immutable. I gained some understanding of what our nonnative English-speaking patients might feel. I learned the following lessons: (1) be cautious-what appears to be a lack of interest may be a lack of understanding; (2) our perceptions of aptitude may be mistaken if based on patients' facial expressions and body language; (3) we should not adjust our words and speed of speech just because we think a patient cannot understand what we are saying; and (4) language is an amazingly powerful tool-the inability to communicate transforms us.
Gordon
Paul R
PR
Department of Family & Community Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz 85724-5113, USA. pgordon@u.arizona.edu
D003142:Communication; D004501:Education, Medical; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007802:Language; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations