7 Tips To Improve Your Bedside Manner Today
Have you ever wondered how you can connect better with your patients, or have higher satisfaction scores and decrease overall complaints? Improving your bedside manner is the answer! Bedside manner, by Wikipedia definition, is a term describing how a healthcare professional handles a patient in a healthcare setting. Bedside manner is how you connect with your patients and how you can establish a healthy working relationship. This leads to your patients trusting you, to then give you the information you need. In the end, patients will get exactly what they came in for and leave feeling satisfied and cared for. Bedside manner is a skill that is seldom taught in formal educational settings, but it is a very important skill to be successful in the healthcare field. Below are 7 tips to improving your bedside manner today (http://www.capson.com/blog/improve-your-bedside-manner).
- Introduce yourself. Take the time to walk up to your patient and tell them who you are. This sets the stage for more personal care and allows your patients to make a connection with you.
Maintain good eye contact. Having good eye contact with the person you are talking to, shows them that you are listening and that you care that they are speaking.- Explain your role in your patient’s care. Tell your patient who you are and why you are meeting with them. This will identify your role in their care and allow them to set reasonable expectations of your relationship. This can help reduce any stress or uncertainty with your encounters.
- Sit down with your patient. This shows respect to your patient and that you are taking the time to meet with them.
- Listen. Take the time to listen to what your patient is telling you. Allowing someone to express how they are feeling can go a long way and allow your patient to trust you.
- Ask open-ended questions. Instead of asking yes or no questions, asking open-ended questions creates a discussion or conversation, rather than an interview. This causes people to feel more understood and that they had a chance to explain themselves.
- Empathize and offer reassurance. Any healthcare professional can give information to a patient. It is how you explain the information and how you offer reassurance that is important. Treat each patient like an individual and practice explaining information how you would want to hear it.
Bedside manner shows your patient that you care and that you are with them through their time of need. Practice using these tips and you can be a part of making the difference and changing our healthcare system for the better!
