Improving communication skills in medical practice by mastering foreign languages

Another skill, which is obtained through learning languages and which is also of prime importance in the medical field, is being tolerant. Globalisation being an inevitable process of countries’ integration affects all spheres of political, economic and social life including healthcare. People seeking medical advice may be of different cultural and religious background. Success of doctor-patient communication depends not only on the ab- sence of a language barrier, but also on nonverbal aspects (eye contact and whom an attending physician has to address to, patients themselves, or their relatives) stemming from patient’s beliefs and a background. Accepting the fact that people may have another opinion, follow different lifestyles comes while immersing oneself in the culture of the native to practice their language. The main way to avoid quarrelling and arguing is to remain nonjudgmental. Tolerating patients’ different traditions, values, and outlooks, a doctor ensures a successful communication, and consequently good outcomes of patients’ staying in hospital.

Thirdly, mastering the foreign language, especially its theory, one gets acquainted with different linguistic means of communication, the application of which may definitely improve communication skills, notably in medical practice. Correct implementation of pauses, intonation pattern changes, sentence stress, repetitive structures facilitate building trust between a patient and a doctor. For example, a doctor may emphasize the most important part of the sentence said to a patient using an emphatic pause as well as a sentence stress. Knowing about hesitational pauses (which are common with patients) enables a doctor to control the communication, and reask a question paraphrasing it so the patient could get it. Moreover, pauses promote attentive listening; proper doctor-patient communication should be patient-centered that is why doctor’s speech should contain enough pauses to let a patient express his feelings, concerns, think of the first manifestations of the disease and the condition of its occurrence. Reduced questions facilitating history taking are an integral part of any medical consultation. “Why not?”, “How?”, “When?”, as well as questions beginning with “any” are widely spread in medical practice [4]. Another linguistic feature of medical communication is syntactic repetition. Repetitive constructions serve as a means of verification of the information given by a patient. Such structures also help to determine how well a patient understood the information concerning his disease, medicine, restrictions [4].

Communication implies conveying information from one individual or a group to an- other; in other words, information has to be clearly understood by both sides. Concerning medical communication, doctors need data to establish a correct diagnosis and treatment; patients are seeking information to know what is wrong, why they feel pain and to know the physician treats a patient and the disease appropriately [5]. The concordance between a doctor and a patient is achieved through mutual understanding. However, medical community is known for its specific vocabulary, which can result in comprehension difficulties due to the difference between doctor’s and patient’s lexicon. Patients may be not familiar with specific medical terms that makes healthcare professionals switch from a medical language to an everyday language [5]. Those who learn foreign languages are in an advantageous position as they are good at explaining their mind using common phrases. It is recommended to practice foreign languages with native speakers on a regular basis (as early as at the beginning of a learning process). Basic users do not dispose a rich vocabulary, yet wish to share a lot of thoughts that require knowledge of more difficult grammar structures and unfamiliar words. That forces them to express themselves within a limited vocabulary. Such ability is essential in medical practice, since doctors have to be able to immediately explain any details in a simple language despite the habit of using specific medical terms. When providing the information on what the patient is eager to know physicians have to avoid the use of medical abbreviations and jargon to satisfy patient’s needs [2].

Conclusion. To conclude, learning foreign languages, a doctor masters not only another system of speaking, but also improves his communication skills that are very important in everyday practice. Learning basics of a foreign language for simple communicative purposes trains medical workers to develop such personal qualities as patience, tolerance, creativity, which make it possible to have a successful dialogue with a patient. Studying the language theory enables healthcare professionals to understand better the linguistic means of communication. Thus, the art of proper communication might be indeed improved by learning foreign languages.