Public communication vs doctor-patient communication: are they really that different? Does public communication improve someone's ability to communicate with a patient?
MedPage Today recently discussed this in an article entitled Can Answering a Reporter's Questions Make You a Super Communicator?"
Talking to the press and public speaking are two very different things but the advice given to professionals about to talk to a reporter is also useful to someone who is about to speak in front of a live audience.
When speaking in public it is important to be able to simplify your message. The best advice from this article came at the end. To quote cardiologist Dr. Clyde Yancy, "...make certain that you are able to convey your points to a child; if you can't make a child understand your message, it's not the message, it's you."
Strive to be like Clyde Yancy, and my own family's Otolaryngologist, Dr. Jeffrey Leider, pictured above. Remember to speak simply and clearly, as if a child is your audience. As you become more adept speaking to reporters or in front of live audiences, your communication will improve in other settings as well.
I too agree with Dr. Clyde Yancy's quote. Your message should always be simple enough for your audience to understand. Using big "fancy" words is not always best. We learned this in our online book. I found it shocking because in my English classes, I was taught to use big words because they sounded more sophisticated. I thought it would make sense with public speaking as well because most of the speeches I have watched people give, they used big "fancy" words. I usually did not understand what the speaker was saying but I thought they were doing things correctly and maybe I needed to broaden my vocabulary. Have you ever experienced anything similar to that and despite what we have learned in public speaking, do you think in certain situations it is okay if some of your audience does not understand what you are trying to say?
ReplyDeleteI also agree that simplifying terms in your speeches and presentations is absolutely a better tactic and easier for the audience to understand. Even using terms simple enough for children to understand is better because that eliminates the notion that the speech or message was targeted towards a certain audience or certain superior education level. I have heard speeches with terms that I myself did not understand and found myself distracted because I couldn't understand what the speaker was trying to say due to how many unknown terms he was using. In your posting, you compared the differences between public speaking and talking to the press, so my question is, do you believe that simplifying terms in both of these situations is beneficial?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment and YES I do believe that simplifying terms is beneficial when speaking to patients, children or the press. Not everyone in your audience will have the same level of expertise on your subject matter. And it's helpful to provide short and simple explanations because the media is looking for short sound bites to use in their pieces, many of which are heavily edited. Thanks for asking!
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