Verbal and non-verbal communication to aide doctors in tackling harassment by patients' relatives.
In the wake of assaults on doctors at public hospitals increasing, KEM hospital organised a day-long workshop for medicos on communication skills on Thursday.
Poor interaction of doctors with patients in public hospitals has been a cause for concern. It is also the reason behind doctors being manhandled by patients' relatives.
Dean and Director of major civic hospitals Dr Avinash Supe said that while analysing complaints, it was found that 90% of such assault cases were due to poor communication, especially in emergency set-ups.
"Many a times, things are not communicated well by the doctors to the patients. How much a doctor cares and how well s/he communicates with his patients is more important than his knowledge. The workshop was to make them aware that both verbal and non-verbal communication is important," said Supe.
He added that the workshop was on taking a multidisciplinary approach in communication skills among doctors. "Effective communication is a very important and an essential part of every doctor's life. It's a skill that needs to be learnt and should be included in the curriculum right from graduation," said Dr Nitin Dange, professor, neuro-surgery, KEM hospital.
Emphasising on the need for doctors to have good communication skills, Dr Shubhangi Parker, head of the psychiatry department at KEM hospital, said that being a professional doesn't mean one should distance themselves from patients. "A doctor has to have good communication and negotiating skills," she added.
The workshop comes in the wake of an incident on August 17, when a resident doctor at Miraj Government Medical College was assaulted, making it the 16th attack this year on resident doctors in the state. Government's assurances and undertakings to the court in the form of restricting the number of relatives in hospitals continue to be unfulfilled in medical colleges.
"The basic fact is that communication skills and behavioural science has to be made a part of the curriculum. On the other hand, conviction of the guilty, which, at present, is almost non-existent, must happen to serve as a deterrent," said Dr Sagar Mundada, President of Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors. He added that unless the problem of the vast shortage of doctors is not solved, there will be no permanent solution to this menace.
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