
How to Communicate With Your Health Care Provider
Here are some tips—from a doctor—on how to improve communications with your health care providers.
May 02, 2017
Feb 10, 2021
Your HealthSheryl Kraft, a freelance writer and breast cancer survivor, was born in Long Beach, New York. She currently lives in Connecticut with her husband Alan and dog Chloe, where her nest is empty of her two sons Jonathan. Sheryl writes articles and essays on breast cancer and contributes to a variety of publications and websites where she writes on general health and wellness issues. She earned her MFA in writing from Sarah Lawrence College in 2005.
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Communication is a skill that's vital—not just in our relationships, but in just about everything we do. By the time we're in this so-called midlife, we hope we've mastered it, but chances are we slip up from time to time.
From the insignificant (like your order of a "triple, venti, soy, no-foam latte")—to the noteworthy (like telling the waiter to make sure there's no shrimp in that seafood stew, since you're deathly allergic to shrimp)—without proper communication, we risk a return trip to Starbucks or worse: a life-or-death trip to the ER.
The words we choose—and just as importantly how we say them—have a huge impact on getting our point across. Even nonverbal skills like body language give away a lot of information, whether we realize it or not.
One of the most common communication problems occurs with our doctors and other health care providers. I can think of many reasons why, and I'm sure you could add your own to this short list:
Yet, without proper communication, our health is at risk. Family physician Karen Trollope-Kumar, MD, says, "Like any healthy relationship, good communication is fundamental.… When that vital link of understanding is broken between doctor and patient, a cascade of negative consequences can result."
I'm very grateful to Dr. Trollope-Kumar, who offers the following excellent tips for improving communication with your health care provider.
And since we're talking about communication, here's what I think midlife women want their health care providers to know. (It felt good to get that off my chest!)
More related reading:
What to Say to a Friend With Cancer
Better Communication With Your Doctor
This post originally appeared on mysocalledmidlife.net.