Healthcare providers or caretakers can use active listening to improve patient care because active listening helps build trust, leading to better health outcomes. Increasing trust among patients can allow them to be more open about concerns, providing physicians with a better understanding of their health issues and allowing for more optimal treatment. If you think about it, you are more likely to take advice from someone you trust and who you feel cares about you, with the bonus of them being an expert compared to someone whom you feel disconnected from and who may not have as much knowledge about your current health condition. Active listening involves more than just hearing but also feeling (1), and those feelings also help foster empathy, another skill that is very valuable in patient care.
Here are 5 Ways to Improve Active Listening:
Limit distractions- If we recall the purpose of active listening, it is to understand and feel what another person is feeling, so having distractions can make it harder to listen and understand what another person is trying to confide in you. This can lead to inappropriate recommendations and, thus, poor health outcomes.
Show You Are Listening - A part of active listening is action, showing your patient or client that you are listening. This can be demonstrated through facial expressions, body language, and appropriate and consented physical contact. Showing that you are actively listening could also look like repeating what the patient says to let them know that you are listening but also to make sure that you are clear about the information your patient is giving you, providing you the opportunity to ask for clarification.
Empathy- Improving empathy skills can help improve active listening. Empathy involves understanding the thoughts and feelings of others. Listening and understanding are two different things. Understanding the thoughts and feelings of a patient means taking their experience to heart and giving them the type of care and concern you would want for a friend, family member, or yourself if you were in their position.
Wait to respond- In order to hear the message of your patients or clients, it is important to give them the floor to communicate all that they want to share. It is vital not to cut them off while they are speaking because it can disrupt their train of thought, or if the response to being cut off from your patient or client is negative, it can cause them to shut down and form walls, destroying trust and their willingness to be open. It is also necessary, as the provider, to give yourself time to reflect on what your patient or client is trying to tell you.
Improve Cultural Competence- It is important to respect and understand the cultures of your patients or clients. Integrating your patient's cultural practices and ideals, as long as they are medically appropriate, can help boost patient morale and trust, making it more likely for patients to follow and understand recommendations. Cultural competence can also include having translators who can bridge the gap created by language barriers. Language barriers present a huge obstacle to care because misinterpretations are possible without a proper translator and if the provider is not fluent in their patient's language. This approach is also known to help reduce health disparities and inequities.
Active listening is one of the best practices physicians can use to help improve patient care because it allows physicians to listen for understanding rather than judgment. Considering patients can help them to open up, giving physicians more information to provide optimal medical care.
Reference
Claassen,L. (n.d.). Section 5: Building Youth/Mentor Relationships. Community Tool Box. https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/implement/youth-mentoring/build-mentor-relationships/main
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