If someone feels like their doctor isn’t listening, what options do they have? Or they’re reflecting back what you said by paraphrasing you or asking questions that are relevant to what you shared.
That might mean that you’re looking at them while you’re talking, and the physician is looking back at you, nodding, or making eye contact. How can you tell if your health care provider is listening to you?Īs a patient, you’re looking for your doctor to show you that they have heard what you said and they understand it. In an episode of Public Health On Call, she talks about what can happen when patients don’t feel heard, ways to teach providers better communication skills, and how biases can come into play.
Mary Catherine Beach, MD, MPH, a professor in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society and at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, studies patient-provider communications.
When patients don’t feel heard by their doctors, there’s an erosion of trust that can lead to serious health consequences-even if clinicians have their patients’ best interests in mind.
