Words, Words, Words

Physicians are not known for their communication skills. Despite sessions in medical school and during residency addressing topics such as “breaking bad news” and “discussing prognosis,” clinicians still do not perform well. A new program for both doctors-in-training and nurse practitioner students sought to improve the poor track record. 

Participating students attended eight 4-hour workshop sessions addressing communication in end-of-life care. Each session included a short lecture, a demonstration by a faculty member of good communication, a practice session for the trainees using a simulated patient, and a discussion. A total of 184 students completed the workshops; another 222 completed “usual education.” (The vast majority were physicians- in-training and only a few were NP students, so I will restrict my comments to doctors). The students were evaluated for their proficiency in communication and their skill in providing end-of-life care after the educational intervention, with physicians, patients, and family members all contributing to the evaluation process. The bottom line: the workshops did not appear to accomplish anything. Students who participated in the workshops performed at almost exactly the same level as those who received the “usual education,” both in their communication skills and in their delivery of end-of-life care. In fact, the only measurable difference between the two groups was that patients whose physician had taken the training were more likely to end up being depressed than those whose physician did not. What are we to make of these findings?

The authors offer several interesting possible interpretations. They point out that an earlier study showed that patients who understood they had a very poor prognosis were more likely to rate their physicians’ communication skills as poor than those who incorrectly believed their prognosis was pretty good. So it is entirely possible that what palliative care physicians mean by “good communication skills” is not what patients and families mean. Palliative care doctors think that good communicators give patients a realistic understanding of their clinical situation and elicit their patients’ preferences for future medical care, all in a compassionate and caring way. Maybe patients and families equate “good communication” with encouragement, or instilling hope, or holding out the prospect of cure, however implausible cure may be. Maybe objective assessments by trained faculty are a better way of evaluating success than are patient and family reports; it turns out that when faculty did the evaluating, they found that students did improve after the workshop. Maybe expecting that the students would do a better job providing end-of- life care after a workshop on communication was naïve; after all, excellent end-of-life care includes expert pain management, good diagnostic skills, and appropriate referral to other clinicians, not just good communication. 

I’d like to suggest a different conclusion. Perhaps it’s time to stop investing so much effort in trying to change physicians. We should turn instead to a radically different way of educating patients and helping them make the difficult decisions they face near the end of life. One of my colleagues has taken just such a tack. He designs short videos to show patients and their families the medical conditions they have and the interventions they might be offered. Multiple studies have now demonstrated that patients who watch these videos have a much clearer idea of what is at stake and express different preferences from patients who hear a verbal description of their disease and the options for treatment. The videos do not replace clinicians; rather, they give patients a strong foundation on which to build when they talk with their physician. They allow doctors to go beyond explaining the basics and they allow patients to apply the information they have learned to their specific situation.

Most of my career has been devoted to trying to be the best possible communicator with my patients, on the one hand, and to writing books and articles to help clinicians and patients make better decisions, on the other. So it pains me to think that this intensely verbal approach may just not be as effective as carefully constructed videos that show the realities of advanced illness and contemporary treatment. I will continue to write (this blog included) because that’s what I do. But I will also partner with my young colleague to create scientifically accurate videos, reviewed by experts, that complement all those words.

Perhaps Eliza Doolittle put it best, in My Fair Lady:

Words, words, words
I’m so sick of words…

Sing me no song, read me no rhyme, 
Don’t waste my time, show me!
Please don’t implore, beg or beseech,
Don’t make a speech, show me!