This is a really nice article by our friend and colleague Bob Arnold of UPMC and VitalTalk fame. He has a lot of good insights, one in particular caught my attention as it is something that I spend a lot of time talking about with residents, fellows, medical students, colleagues…family…friends…myself…
The focus should be on what you saw, what you did and why more than whether your behavior “worked”. Too often, people evaluate their behavior on whether it had the desired outcome, e.g. did the family calm down or make what we think is the right decision. The problem is that you can do everything right and the conversation may still go to shit. The only thing that you can control is your behavior. Thus, in debriefing your communication skills, the focus should always be on what you did and why you did it. Over time, you will be a better communicator (and more conversations will go well).
act-ur.com 