Yesterday we were introduced to The Domino Game. A challenging endeavor highlighting the components of effective communication in a medical facility. For my group, these components seemed to be time, the ability to provide feedback during the conversation, and a standardized language. This activity truly exemplified that if any one of these three components is missing, miscommunication is going to happen. There is no question about it. Regrettably, how often is one of these components absent in healthcare? Whether it is a physician barking orders to a nurse and running off to the next task or a medical professional forgetting that a patient most likely does not speak the foreign language that medicine so often is, it happens every single day. Effective communication takes practice and thought, but as my title for this post states, communication is something that I almost never thought about as a component of my medical education and career. I hope this is a lesson that will stick with me throughout the rest of my training and beyond.
