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Effective Communication Techniques for Pediatric Patients: Enhancing Understanding and Cooperation in the Perioperative Period
Mason Merriel Alexis Ramirez
Learning Objectives 1. Discuss strategies for comforting pediatric patients and their families in the perioperative period. 2. Develop a framework for optimizing communication with the pediatric patient during the perioperative period.
Introduction Effective communication is a critical component of providing safe and high-quality patient care, particularly when serving pediatric patients and their families during the perioperative period. The communication skills of healthcare professionals have a significant impact on various aspects of patient care, including patient disclosure, treatment adherence, adaptation to illness, and bereavement. Additionally, good healthcare communication plays a crucial role in accurate diagnosis, treatment planning, and improved patient outcomes, such as increased patient knowledge, functional status, and psychological well-being, as well as reduced surgical morbidity. It also promotes parent and child satisfaction, and enhances clinician attitudes, teamwork, shared decision making, and perioperative education. On the other hand, poor communication during the perioperative period can result in stress, negative outcomes, increased morbidity, and long-term anger and regret for patients and their families. It is concerning that patient communication skills receive limited attention in pediatric services and training. This chapter aims to address this gap by providing a concise overview of evidence-based strategies for effective communication with pediatric patients and their families, offering a practical framework to optimize communication in this setting.
Building Trust and Rapport Building trust and rapport with the pediatric patient and their family is the foundation of effective communication. As with all other patients, healthcare providers should introduce themselves to the children in their care, establish eye contact, use a warm and friendly tone, and address them by their preferred name. At the initiation of the encounter, and when possible before ever meeting the patient, it is prudent to gather information regarding the child’s interests, tendencies, and temperament from family or other staff members. Knowing information such as the patient’s favorite pastimes and foods, their social history such as familial context and housing situation, as well as individual differences regarding comfortability around strangers or a tendency to exaggerate or downplay their own suffering are all valuable to the performance of an efficient and thorough perioperative evaluation. However, one should always maintain a silent air of skepticism regarding subjective assessments of the patient by even close family members, as a child’s behaviors may be misinterpreted by or actively hidden from their parents or guardians due to external influences such as culture, religion, familial conflict, or simply the nature of the parent-child dynamic. Once you are finally face to face with your pediatric patients, start off the encounter on as positive a note as possible in order to
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COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES FOR PEDIATRIC PATIENTS 57
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