Power of Communication

This is a slightly different post from my usual, but I felt that I just needed to include this.

A few years ago, I took a “Fundamentals of Editing” class with The School of The New York Times. When preparing us for our man-on-the-street interviews in Central Park (basically, approaching strangers in Central Park), we were told that a really nice final question to ask during an interview is, “Is there anything that you would like to add?” In theory, this question would provide the interviewee with an opportunity to share anything that they felt was important that I, as the interviewer, did not ask.

In practice, I have found that that is not always the case. Some people get really flustered. Such an open ended question is not only foreign, but also frightening. Others will give me a resounding “no” so quickly that I know they didn’t even stop to think about whether they actually did or not.

Therefore, I only ask this question to certain kinds of people. It works best for the people who confidently answer my questions but may need a little prompting. There is no use for this question in regards to people who are extremely talkative as well as people who prefer 3-4 word answers.

I would like to share one instance in which this question has yielded an unexpected result.

I had just finished interviewing a woman about her young daughter who has CP. I popped this question in because I was anticipating that there was maybe another component to the story that she would share. There are a lot of memories and aspects in life surrounding children, so I was certain that she had a story or two to tell. Instead, she started talking about my grandpa, her primary care doctor.

“I just have to say, it’s really important to feel like you are being taken good care of. I really trust your grandpa. I’m gonna start to cry because he really did save my life. And he’s taught me that you have to be very, very comfortable with the people that you see. I’m trying to find new doctors so that they can communicate with each other under the same system. It stinks that I have to do this at 47, but your grandpa has hooked me up with all these amazing doctors and now I just feel so much more comfortable. This really should be set at an early age, you know, not now. But, I’m finally doing it.”

Even after our interview ended, I kept contemplating this. Fundamentally, I know that communication is important to healthcare: the patient needs to communicate their problem to their physician, the physician needs to communicate their diagnoses and treatment to the patient, the physician needs to coordinate with other professionals and members of the patient’s team, so on and so forth. However, it was eye-opening to see how deeply impacted this patient truly felt.

I know that it is not possible for every doctor to spend as much time with patients as my grandpa does. My grandpa has his own private practice and has the freedom to choose his hours (he still works because he simply loves his job), and thus the amount of time allotted for each patient. Yet, I can only hope that I can emulate him, changing a patient’s life with trust and connection.