The Soft Skills Every Doctor needs

“The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; a calling, not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head.” William Osler

Contrary to what most people think, soft skills don’t involve only the student or the people searching for a job. Soft skills concern everyone including the manager, the lawyer, the doctor, the teacher, the president, and so on. But today I would like to highlight the importance of soft skills in healthcare in general and for doctors in particular.

?Soft skills are what differentiate between a doctor with a degree and a real doctor who knows how to combine between competency and compassion. ?

In additional to academic knowledge, which may characterize the technical skills and the competencies of a doctor, soft skills are what make a doctor a human being.

Soft skills are not just new buzzy words to attract attention these days but about facts and figures. Research has found that physician empathy improves clinical outcomes for patients.

The way a doctor treats and communicates with a patient can trigger more stress or instill hope. Doctors themselves can have a placebo effect on the patience’s health or a nocebo effect.?

I am the right person to talk about this subject as this is something I struggled with for decades as a patient trying to find a doctor who combines between competency and compassion.? One of my doctors in the past used to work in one of the most prestigious hospitals in the world with very solid degrees but his attitudes showcased a deficit in empathy and lack of integrity.

I cannot go back and change what happened but I can write about it today and if I manage to touch the heart of one doctor or physician, then I consider myself already achieved my goal.

You can watch our episode with Dr. Pablo Dezanzo from Argentina about the Power o compassion and his stories of helping his patients struggling with cancer.

?As a patient advocate and an expert in soft skills, here what I consider the must soft skills every doctor needs to embrace or acquire.

• Empathy: is the core of any human connection and can unify the relationship between a doctor and a patient. ?I had experience with doctors who impacted me in a negative way but I also have others who were compassionate and kind to me.

Empathy is the ability to put yourself in other's shoes and see the problem or a situation?from a different perspective.?Empathy has three major levels as mentioned by Daniel Goleman in his book, “Social Intelligence”:

1. Cognitive empathy:?is the ability to?understand?how patients see things and what they may?be thinking or struggling with.
2. Emotional empathy:?is the ability to move from understanding to?feeling?their emotions, which is deeper than just seeing things from other’s perspectives.
3. Compassionate empathy:?is?action oriented?as the person?not only understands, and feels, but he or she is willing to help and ready to act.

It all-starts with paying attention to what others may need or feel but doctors may have a limited or even pre-defined time set by the hospitals to meet the patient and they may not have time for empathy or compassion.

A lot of universities are adding many additional activities like art, painting, etc. to their curriculum to improve the experience of students from medical schools. The Yale School of Medicine, for instance,?requires students to scrutinize paintings?in a museum to improve their skills at observation and empathy.

• Active listening:?when you develop empathy, you connect better with patients and you are more likely to understand what they are going through. Active listening is both?being receptive and responsive. It is the ability to put aside all your concerns, remove distraction and engage in a dialogue with the patient, without biases and judgments.?

Active listening involves three levels; combining all of them will make you a better listener:

1.?????Active listening: (non verbal)?starts from the willingness to connect with others by keeping an?appropriate body movement?like eye contact, facial expressions, and head nodding.?

2.?????Reflective listening:?(verbal) this involves repeating, paraphrasing the statements and engaging in a conversation to make sure that what was said is what you understood.

3.?????Empathetic listening: is the combination of the non verbal and the verbal with a compassionate attitude towards the patient.

There are many barriers that may hinder you from becoming a good listener and this includes all the cultural biases and judgment, inappropriate non verbal cues, or being in a rush to finish the conversation as the time devoted to the patient is over .?

• Humility: A hospital or a clinic is an institution like others that need real leaders not only managers. The doctor is a leader among others as he has to communicate, plan, coordinates, and empower the people around him to make things happen. Without humility, things may get difficult and harsh.

Humility here is not about being modest. It is the capacity to ask for help when feeling overwhelmed and ask for feedback when things are not working as expected. When you are humble, you are also more likely to trust, delegate and empower others.

" It takes humility to seek feedback, It takes wisdom to understand it, analyze it and appropriately act on it." Steven Covey

Today doctors and nurses are overwhelmed and depressed more than anytime before. They face daily challenges and it is time to ask for help and support which is empathized in our episode with Dr Miriam Zylberglait from Peru

• Emotional mastery: ask yourself these questions: are you aware of your emotions when you lose your temper or when you are stressed? do you know how to motivate yourself even in challenging situations? can you tell when a patient is sad, stressed or depressed?

Emotional mastery starts from emotional awareness which is the ability to recognize what trigger your emotions before trying to control them.

Mastering your emotions involves an understanding of these three components: how the?cognitive appraisal?can (what the trigger the event)?influence your emotions?(expressed through facial expressions or gestures)?and impact your behaviors?(physiological reaction, indifference..)

Emotions are here to help you manage your stress, take actions and pick up the right decisions. They are not about good or bad. They are just emotions serving you to survive and thrive.

The list of skills are still long but I believe embracing empathy, active listening, humility and emotional mastery can set you apart from other doctors who are more focused on results and return on investment.

I believe the coming generation of doctors may be more equipped and trained to look at their patients as humans in strong need of help and hope and not as a source of additional income to maintain their social and financial benefits.

Let's shift the paradigm: patients are not clients

Thank you for the read