Verbal De-escalation. Rules for Negotiating with an Uncooperative Patient

Practical exercises with the use of negotiation and mediation tactics and techniques to raise awareness of the professional responsibility for the communication with patients and the performance of professional tasks.

 Each communication with another person always has its beginning and end, which depend only on us. It is extremely rare for a bad start in communication to end well. When we start badly, problems pile up and lead to failure. If we convey our bad emotions to patients, we can be more than sure that we will also get (with a vengeance) bad emotions from them. Moreover, they will not want to listen to us or cooperate with us. So we will lose what we care about the most. In a doctor's office, everyone plays their roles learned in the process of socialization:

·      the role of a difficult patient - a patient who comes to a doctor's office or to a hospital is usually anxious, stressed or upset. It is not uncommon for these three states to occur simultaneously. He expects the doctor to listen to him and help. He is looking for support in the doctor, relying on his social authority. Many times, a doctor or a paramedic has to deal with an aggressive patient in his daily work - on the street, in an ambulance, in a hospital or in a medical clinic. This also applies to parents who come with a healthy child for vaccination, but deep down they fear more or less hypothetical side effects or worry about the child’s proper development.

·      role of the doctor - the doctor expects from the patient compliance, cooperation and personal hygiene. He hears patients but does not listen to them. He uses his authority to create a paternalistic relationship, not a partnership. A doctor or paramedic also deals with aggressive patients, with whom various methods and negotiation techniques have to be used to save their lives.

On the surface, the patient and the doctor, although so dependent on each other, do not meet at a common point of understanding. It is not uncommon that they do not listen to each other and accuse each other of lacking compassion and understanding. This makes any disruption in the doctor-patient relationship so difficult and sometimes - irreparable. And yet both sides want the same thing: the health of the patient.

Part of the workshop or case study are tests that allow the analysis of personality traits and competences, which will give the medical students  the necessary knowledge to work with patients. Diagnostic tests focused on achieving goals and implementing plans by shaping effective behaviours and the beliefs that support them. Participants work out solutions based on the case study as well as their experiences discussed with the patient.

Exercises / scenes to be recorded on video