Patient Education Workgroup Aims to Identify Top Principles for Effective Patient Communication

The ACS Board of Governors Patient Education Workgroup’s mission is to improve the care of surgical patients by addressing areas of patient needs and advocating for surgical education to patients. Its latest project is focused on identifying and prioritizing integral elements of effective patient communication to better characterize the top principles of effective patient communication. 

Effective patient communication is crucial for fostering patient-surgeon relationships, which directly impacts patient health outcomes, safety, and experience. The workgroup has broadly collated those principles (listed alphabetically):

• Active listening
• Allowing enough time to meet with the patient
• Checking for understanding
• Demonstrating cultural awareness
• Describing any tests, procedures, and potential complications in detail
• Empathy and compassion, providing reassurance and support
• Encouraging patient participation
• Encouraging shared decision-making
• Exhibiting patience with patients
• Giving personalized and actionable instructions
• Inviting feedback and clarification
• Providing realistic expectations for trajectory of care (e.g., recovery time, pain, etc.)
• Respecting patient autonomy
• Using clear and simple language
• Using nonverbal communication (e.g., using eye contact)
• Using open-ended questions
• Using visual aids such as radiology imaging, diagrams, internet images to explain procedures and surgeries

From this initial list of communication principles, workgroup members were surveyed to identify the top 10 principles believed to be the most crucial in establishing effective patient communication. Results of this internal survey are shown in the table . Additional principles that were not included on the initial list could also have been suggested as part of the survey.

Since the initial internal results were limited by the small sample size (n = 11) and scope of specialties represented among the workgroup members (i.e., acute care surgery, pediatric surgery, surgical oncology, trauma), similar surveys are planned for the Board of Governors and patients. Other committees and leadership groups within the ACS may be asked to participate to obtain a more comprehensive consensus of the most valued principles of effective patient communication. 

The survey results are intended to help develop resources and educational tools to enhance training and improve patient communication skills for surgeons. If your committee or leadership group is interested in participating in this project, contact governors@facs.org.