Can bedside manner be taught, or is it something you’re born with?

January 31, 2009

I’ve always thought that good bedside manner, like personality, is something you can’t learn.

So did Pauline Chen, but in her latest NY Times piece, she talks about a study that show us otherwise.

After an 18-month period where doctors met twice a month to practice skills designed to enhance compassion, or “reflected on their own work through discussion and narrative writing,” they outscored the controls when measured on things like listening to others, teaching communication skills to medical students and residents, and adopting caring attitudes towards patients.

The current environment encourages quantity, often resulting in rushed patient encounters. Perhaps if basic bedside manner techniques can be learned – such as sitting down when talking to patients, looking at them in the eye, or not typing on a computer when they’re talking – patient satisfaction can improve, despite abbreviated visits.

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{ 7 comments }

1 rosie January 31, 2009 at 4:58 pm: I believe that if every health care worker spent time being in the shoes of the patient we could see a dramatic change. Allow them to discuss and reflect.
Thanks for this post
2 epadvocate January 31, 2009 at 5:25 pm: Kevin,

Thanks for bringing up the subject.

As you know, I always look to patients to pick up their share of the responsibility in the doctor-patient relationship.

Based on Dr. Chen’s article and the question about whether doctors truly can “learn” bedside manner, I posed the question to my readers… I invite your readers to provide their ideas for helping their doctors improve bedside manner: http://is.gd/hWpn

Your suggestions about looking patients in the eye, and sitting down to talk to them are a good start.

Trisha Torrey
Every Patient’s Advocate
http://patients.about.com
3 Rishi February 1, 2009 at 9:10 am: This really is an interesting topic. As a pre-med who will start medical school in about half a year, I always thought bedside manner was something we all inherently possessed at this point in our education. After all, doesn’t compassion manifest itself through acts of common sense? Then again, I won’t really know the true meaning until I’ve started my practice.
4 Anonymous February 1, 2009 at 6:46 pm: My biggest problem with this study (and the numerous compassion building exercises I’ve been made to attend) is the outcome measure.

The actual measure of bedside manner is patient feedback/assessment. Listening scores and internalized attitudes towards patients are intermediates. Patients don’t care what doctors say in the breakroom (at least as long as they don’t have to hear it). All they care about is feeling that the doctor cares about their concerns and that their condition is improving.
5 Anonymous February 1, 2009 at 10:52 pm: I wanted to say that I learned 'bedside manor', or as I prefer to call it
> 'how to talk and LISTEN to patients', from mentors. I watched doctors and
> nurses who were good at it and copied them. My first, and best, mentor was
> my physician father. From him I learned how to listen to patients, and to tailor
> my communication style to be compatible with the patient. From a chief
> resident I learned to say what are usually my final words to a patient, "Is
> there anything else I can do for you?" And then I just stand, or sit there
> for a few moments and wait. My patient usually dismisses me from the room,
> and hopefully never feels rushed or hurried.
6 Kairol Rosenthal February 7, 2009 at 8:13 pm: I read Chen’s article in the NYTimes. As a young adult cancer patient, the debate feels very important at first glance, but when I take a step back it sounds grandiose. I don’t care about a doctor’s reasons for being nice or a jerk: behaviors are a choice. The discussion of how hard it is for a doctor to be compassionate only seems to inflate their ego while slapping me in the face. Either act with compassion or don’t. And if they decide ultimately that they cannot, they needn’t worry, in the end I’ll still choose a good doctor over a nice one.

http://everythingchangesbook.com/
7 Ajlouny February 9, 2009 at 11:11 pm: Bedside manor I believe is part of a persons characteristic, but I believe can defiantly be taught. I only seek compassion from my doctor.