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| ASSEMBLY EDITION • ORLANDO, FLA |
Heard any good stories lately? If the answer is no, Dr. John Salinsky has some advice for you: "Start listening to your patients' stories." Salinsky, a GP in suburban London and course director at Whittington Hospital in London, discussed the value of patient stories yesterday at the Wonca plenary titled "Patient Stories: How They Influence Us as Physicians."
"Since I was a boy, I've always loved stories," said Salinsky. The first day he was permitted to talk to a patient "was a great day in my life," he said. "My instructor told me, 'let the patient tell his story.' I thought, 'This will be wonderful. I love stories.'"
But he said he was then handed a long list of questions and told to "interrogate the patient." At that point, the interrogation became more important than the patient's story, he said.
Fortunately, for both him and his patients, his career as an interrogator was short-lived, and soon he was again listening to patient stories. The listening, he said, improves his understanding of patients, improves the way he interacts with patients and very often helps him "correctly diagnose the patient."
Salinsky shared three tips for physicians who want to improve their listening skills:
Salinsky said that in reading classics like Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, family physicians would be likely to "identify types very similar to the patients in your practice."
He said that physicians who want to hone listening skills by sharing patient stories with other physicians could join a Balint group, which is a group of physicians that meets regularly to share stories of medical practice. The International Balint Foundation is active "throughout Europe and is very popular in the United States," said Salinsky. The group is named for Michael Balint, a psychoanalyst from Hungary who immigrated to England in the 1930s and who was known for his efforts to help improve the doctor-patient relationship.
If all else fails, Salinsky said, "write about your patients." Writing about a difficult patient can help change the way the physician sees that patient, he said. "It helps the doctor-patient relationship."
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