Communicating to people that they are valuable

So having looked at the reasons why valuing people needs to be at the heart of healthcare, it’s time to learn about how to communicate to people that they are valuable. The starting point is always to recognise the value of the person in front of you simply because they are human, whether patient or colleague.

Time is always limited but it doesn’t need to limit how we perceive the person in front of us. There will be many different ways in which we communicate to people that they are valuable. Some of these will be things that we would all aim for such as thinking through the problems that come to us well, using the best of our knowledge and the knowledge of others. Some of these will be things we have learnt as an individual be it empathy for a particular situation or wisdom we have learnt in work and in our lives.

One thing I have learnt from colleagues is to use patients names as they talk with them. It’s not something I do naturally but it’s something I’d like to learn to do if possible. The person in front of me is not ‘just another person on my appointment list’ but a valuable human being. I have changed the way I write my notes at work and try to use people’s names rather than ‘the patient’. I have noticed since I have started to do this it has helped me to see the person in front of me as a person not ‘just a patient ‘.

The other change I am currently working on is to try to find out something about a patient that doesn’t relate directly to the problem they are coming with, which can be interesting for me but I can see helps patients see that I value them as people.

The big challenge is that a huge way of communicating to people that they are valuable is to give them time but our time is limited and so we need to find brief ways to do this. Several times I have told people directly that although I can see what they are going through is really difficult this doesn’t change their value as humans because it doesn’t stop them from being human.

I suspect there is actually a broad variety of ways I can make small adjustments to my time with patients that show them that I see them as valuable. I am still learning and will continue to learn, both from patients and from colleagues. Whatever these things are, if they help patients to see that I regard them as valuable, they have the potential to have a significant impact on the care and health of patients.