Communication and Interpersonal Skills
Communication items test whether you can build rapport, gather accurate information, and convey it safely. The strongest options are usually open-ended, patient-centered, and clarifying; the weakest are closed, leading, or dismissive.
Key concepts:
- Therapeutic communication includes open-ended questions, reflection, restatement, clarification, silence, and empathy. It avoids false reassurance, advice-giving, and "why" questions that sound accusatory.
- Active listening means attending to verbal and nonverbal cues and confirming understanding.
- SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) structures handoffs and provider calls. It reduces omissions and supports read-back.
- Handoff and read-back are safety behaviors: the receiver repeats critical information back to confirm it.
- Conflict and difficult conversations call for "I" statements, focusing on behavior not personality, and escalating when safety is at risk.
- Interpreter use is required for patients with limited English proficiency; family members should not serve as interpreters for clinical discussions.
Traps: options that give advice ("you should just relax"), offer false reassurance ("it will be fine"), change the subject, or ask "why did you do that?" Another trap is choosing a closed question when the goal is to explore feelings, or choosing to "document" when the immediate need is to communicate.
Worked rule of thumb: When a patient expresses distress, the best first response reflects the feeling back ("You sound frightened about the surgery") rather than solving the problem.