A 'quality' of a doctor that can heal or hurt a patient or family: A confession

One of the most unique features of language is that it keeps evolving. It is even possible that you might no longer understand the diction of the characters in old movies. You might wonder why those characters are speaking in a specific tone. The same thing happens in communication between a doctor and a patient. The real task is to convey the message clearly by using words or tone that is not offensive to the patient.

Not an easy task
Communication is a skill that needs practice. The English language has been an unavoidable part of our lives. Our children attend English-medium schools and learn science in this language too. But they speak to each other in their mother tongue. Emotions are always involved when a doctor communicates with a patient. It becomes difficult to effectively communicate with the patient or their close family members without hurting them. Let us look at an example. 

A scenario
It was too late when Sam’s father, Joseph, was diagnosed with cancer. The only remaining option was to prescribe medicines for chemotherapy. Sam is settled abroad; he has been informed of his father’s condition. The doctor has already informed the family that Joseph can’t be cured and that he will probably die in a year. A year passed; Joseph continued his treatment. Suddenly, his condition worsened, and he was on his deathbed. 

In such a situation, you could tell Sam that his father might not survive a long time or I think we might lose him, we have done everything we could or he might die soon. Although these usages in English might be helpful, it is definitely not easy to convey them in one’s mother tongue. That is what makes our language stand out. The words may carry different emotional weight when we speak in our mother tongue and in a foreign language. 

A patient or his/her close family members may hate the doctor who delivers them this unfortunate message. So, the way in which we communicate is as important as the choice of words. From the voice and tone to our facial expressions or the time taken to convey the message, everything plays a crucial role in effective communication between a doctor and a patient. In the olden times, the elders in the family took care of such things. They belonged to a generation that had witnessed countless births and deaths around them. Now, the number of births and deaths has diminished, and such close familial bonds, too, have vanished. With that, the challenges faced by doctors have only increased manifold. An iota of understanding of this scenario can help both doctors and patients go a long way toward gauging where one is or where the other is coming from.