Art of Eloquence Blog — doctors RSS

I've posted about this topic before. It seems doctors and their staff are not well trained in the art of eloquence.  They tend to tell us what to do and are missing the gene that requires them to explain.  Case in point, last week my father went in for an MRI of his hip/leg which has been bothering him for several years now.  After arriving home, he was called with an urgent request to drop everything and rush back to the hospital because they found something unrelated that they were concerned about.  No time to say hello, goodbye, you're late, you're late, you're late!! He raced back down there where they did all sorts of tests and told him to stay...

So often I'm asked if communication skills are really that important for every day life.  I've developed a quote I'd like to put on every bumper sticker. "While you may manage to live your entire life without making a speech, you will not get through one day without communicating something to someone!" The past week, while I was posting about the National Words Matter Week contest, there were several news stories that came across my eDesk that illustrate the reasons behind why communication skills are not just needed for lawyers and politicians.  Here are two: An article from March 5, 2010 states Doctors urged to do more listening as complaints about care increase Among other things it states "Officials say...