Communication Skills 2 Gathering Information

This part of active listening and encourages the patient to tell the story. We want to encourage the patient to talk about their presenting complaint this can be done using verbal and non-verbal communication.

In the early stage of the consultation this should be relatively neutral to encourage the patient to talk and show that you are listening, but not to interrupt their opening statement.

In the later part of the consultation while gathering information, this can be more verbal too, such as paraphrasing or repetition.

• Encouragement - For example, non-verbal cues such as head nods and keeping eye contact.
• Verbal cues - Such as, go on, uh-ha and I see. These are neutral comments that encourage the patient to go on.
• Silence - We are talking here about a comfortable silence! A long pause can give a patient room to express what they are thinking, or time to think about the right words to describe a problem without feeling rushed.
• Repetition or echoing - This is repetition of the patients last few words.

For example:

Patient - "I'm really finding may dentures quite loose now and its causing me lots of problems".

Dentist - "Problems?"

Patient - "Yes, they cause me pain when things get stuck under them and they rub, I get ulcers. Also, they move, I'm afraid to laugh in case they fall out. I've stopped going out so much. It's really affecting my social life."

• Paraphrasing - This is a check that your interpretation of the patient's message is correct

For example, carrying on from above:

Dentist - "It sounds as if the problems with your dentures are not just painful but are having quite an effect on your enjoyment of life too."

• Sharing Your Thoughts - Explaining why you are pursuing a line of questioning and checking the patient's perspective.

For example:

"I asked if there were any stressors in your life at the moment, because sometimes tooth grinding at night can be bought on by stress, do you think that might be true for you?"