The role of medical humanities in the development of communication skills

Abstract

Communication is taken for granted since we all learn to talk and write in childhood, and it is expected that our skills will improve with time and with practice; however, communication in medicine is complex and nuanced, and deserves attention. For the communication to be effective, the provider must take into consideration the ‘history’ of the patient, the ‘language’ he understands, his ‘cultural’ and ‘religious’ background, and his ‘human’ dimensions. The provider, thus, has to come from a position of humanity; otherwise, the communication stands the risk of becoming meaningless and irrelevant to the patient’s context, besides evoking patient dissatisfaction with care.