Doctor-Patient Communication: A Review

In the case study involving Ahmed, the doctor uses Michael Argyle's theory of communication (communication cycle, which is also a one-to-one type of communication) to communicate with Ahmed as the doctor first reads Ahmed medical reports to think of what he will say to Ahmed which is the first step of the communication cycle as the first step of the communication cycle is for someone to think of what to say as if the doctor as not able to think of what he would say to Ahmed then the doctor would not be able to say anything to Ahmed about his medical condition, what might/will happen to Ahmed’s liver or what will be further done to help Ahmed with his medical condition.

The second step of the communication cycle which happened in the case study would be that the doctor “codes” the message so that only Ahmed would be able to understand it, the doctor “codes” the message by talking in a language that Ahmed understand as if there was someone next to Ahmed who could only speak one language and the doctor wanted to tell Ahmed something, the doctor could ask the person to leave or the doctor could talk in a language which Ahmed only understands.

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The third step of the communication cycle which has been used in the case study would be sending the message which the doctor has coded, which is the doctor actually talking to Ahmed in English about Ahmed’s medical condition, the reason why the coded message has to be sent is that if the doctor did not send the “coded” message to Ahmed then that would mean that Ahmed would not know about what has happened or what will happen with his medical condition, the fourth stage of the communication cycle would be that the coded message which the doctor sent to Ahmed is received, the reason for this is because if the “coded” message was not received then that would mean that Ahmed would not receive the information which he needs to improve his medical condition. The fifth step would be for Ahmed to decode the message which the doctor had sent him as if Ahmed did not decode the “coded” message sent to him by the doctor then Ahmed would not be able to understand/know what the doctor had said to him meaning Ahmed would not be able to go to the sixth stage which is understanding the message which was sent from the doctor as if Ahmed did not understand the message which he had “decoded” then that would mean that Ahmed would not know what the doctor is saying about his medical condition.

The doctor in the case study is also using a formal type of communication as doctor Scott makes sure that the radio is turned off as if the radio was on it would seem as if Dr. Scott doesn’t care much about the patient as the patient might think that the doctor is listening to the music more rather than them or if a patient with hearing problems was to talk to Dr. Scott and the radio is on then that would mean that the patient might not be able to hear the doctor as well due to the radio playing in the background. Dr. Scott also uses “languages” to make sure that the patient knows that Dr. Scott is listening and is focused on the patient when Ahmed came into the room, Dr. Scott stood up and shook Ahmed’s hand, made eye contact with him, nodded his head at Ahmed at appropriate times and Dr. Scott shows Ahmed a picture of the kidney so that Ahmed can have a better understanding of his medical condition if Dr. Scott did not do all these things then Ahmed might think that Dr. Scott is not paying attention or that Dr. Scott does not care. Ahmed also knows that Dr. Scott knows is paying attention as Dr. Scott is asking open and closed questions and by asking Ahmed if he understood what he said at the end of the appointment and at the end Dr. Scott reassures Ahmed and tell Ahmed that he can call the surgery any time he wants to if he has any further questions.