Communication is a means by which individuals connect. It is a two-way process, where conveying and receiving are both critical. As an inevitable part of everyone's life, it is apparent why effective communication skills are important.
It is especially so for professions that are constantly at the frontline dealing with customers or clients. An example would be the class of healthcare professionals.
A physician would not be able to efficiently and accurately diagnosis without effective communication; a pharmacist would not be able to properly counsel a patient without effective communication.
In my experience, I find it impossible to help patients in any way if I do not know their needs. When such situation arises, good communication have to be employed to elicit any signs (or symptoms) that may indicate their needs. These signs are almost never straightforward or logical. I once encountered a patient seeking for “Super Salad” in the pharmacy. It was frustrating then for there were no reasonable leads as to what she truly needed. It was only upon further enquiries—questions about what she planned to use it for and what was wrong with her—that I realised that she had meant Spersallerg eyedrops for her itching eyes. Good communication skills save the day!
EDITED
Hi Wee Boon, no wonder you titled your entry "Super Salad". It's quite amusing :P (if not frustrating for you). So the communication failed because of mispronunciation. It's hard for the patient if she is non- English speaking. Is she? When direct questioning fails, an indirect method seems useful. It was quick-thinking on your part. And most importantly, you understood her at the end of the day and met her needs.
ReplyDeleteHAHA! Actually, I believe another possibility could be that Super Salad is a short form or mnemonics for her to remember which eye drop to use. In this case, with due deference, perhaps if she said that to a more experienced pharmaceutical staff, she would have been understood much more easily.
ReplyDeleteOther times, we also use "veiled" language in communication that confers a certain privileged status to the individuals using these languages. For e.g. water can be oxidane or dihydrogen oxide to a chemist, heart attack would be myocardial infarction to a doctor etc. It's good to know both the layman and the esoteric terms in any communication to reach out effectively to everyone..
Thank you for your interesting post. Have a nice day! =)
Cheers,
You Sheng
Grammar edit:
ReplyDelete*mnemonics->mnemonic
*perhaps if she said that->perhaps if she HAD said that
Heyz,
ReplyDeleteHow are you?Recovered?
Interesting salad.
Really, in the medical arena, accurate communication between practitioners and patients are even more crucial due to the consequences of incorrect diagnosis.
I really like this clear, concise post, Wee Boon. You do an excellent job of illustrating with one anecdote the importance of effective comm skills for you.
ReplyDeleteJust a couple very minor language issues:
1) good communication would have >>> good communication have
2) she had meant for Spersallerg eyedrops >>> she had meant Spersallerg eyedrops
Also, the last paragraph seems a bit redundant. Do you see why?
Thanks for your effort!
Thanks guys, for the comments and concern! I have made the respective corrections. =)
ReplyDeleteThis Super Salad incident actually surfaced a point-- that verbal communication is not all about having good articulation or vocabulary. Common understanding plays the bigger role. It is just like Singlish in Singapore; Singaporeans understand it perfectly fine, but when we move it elsewhere, it may go out of context and the locals would have no idea on what we are trying to say. (Example, at a nightclub: "WOW! The Long Island Iced Tea here is damn 'power' la!" It's probably gonna be frowned upon.
With regards to the name of the eyedrop Spersallerg, even I get tongue-tied sometimes. It is quite a phenomenon that medications just have queer names, and the public's rendition of them are sometimes just baffling(and amusing). Thankfully, with questions asked and observations made, we almost always manage to make out what they mean in the end. I definitely had a sense of acheivement when I handed over the right eyedrop that time.
When I told my mentor, she was very amused. Then, she sent out mass emails to the pharmacists at other branch, informing them of this new "synonym".
Sorry for the late post, I think your post raised up a very important aspect of communication which is getting feedback from your audience. I think feedbacks are important in communication because it allows you to change your communication strategy until the message is fully understood by both parties. Nothing can be more frustrating than an inflexible conversation in which both parties are trying to communicate one way without adjusting their
ReplyDeletecommunication strategy until the message is fully understood by both sides.
Hi Weaboon, when I read to the last sentence I could not help to stop laughing. This funny true story reflects how important it is to communicate effectively. As all the other classmates have said so much about this wonderful Super Salad, I would like to save my words for your next post.
ReplyDeleteGood job and.....Sorry for the late post~~~
Yitong