Talking to healthcare staff

Most conversations between you and your doctors or nurses will probably go smoothly. However, it is not unusual for people to sometimes feel that they are not getting the information or support that they need. Here are some tips to help you:

• Ask doctors or nurses to use simple language and explain any medical terms  If your healthcare team use words that you do not understand, you can ask them to explain them. Sometimes they forget that you are not as familiar with medical jargon as they are.

• Use your own language  Although your doctors or nurses may use medical jargon, you do not have to. There is nothing wrong with using your own words to describe the problem. In fact, using jargon that you only partly understand might cause problems by making the health professionals think that you know more than you do.

• When you’re embarrassed, don’t hesitate to say so!  We all find certain kinds of medical symptoms and problems embarrassing – they’re very often the kind of personal matter we don’t talk about to someone else. So when you start talking about something that is embarrassing, you can just say something like ‘I’m sorry ... this is embarrassing to talk about, but...’.

Talking about your symptoms

You will often have to describe your symptoms – pain| or nausea| or breathlessness| or some other medical problem. It is very important to also talk about any feelings and symptoms of depression| or anxiety that you have. It is actually quite difficult to do this well but it is important to let people know how you feel.

Try to be as factual and open as you can when you are describing your problem  Sometimes it is tempting to exaggerate the pain or nausea to convince the doctor and get better or more urgent therapy. Alternatively there may be a temptation to play down the symptoms to appear strong or brave. If possible, ignore both of these temptations and try to describe the problems in an honest, factual and neutral way. It may not be easy, but if you do that, your doctor or nurse will have a better understanding of your situation.

If you try to overplay or underplay your problems, there is a risk that your health professionals will be less able to help you. So as far as possible, be very honest.