Look and Listen: How the Coldness of Health Care Providers is Modifiable

Abstract

Purpose: To explore how we can make Health Care Providers (HCP) more conscious of their gaze and to encourage HCPs to make more eye contact with their patients, making them better suited to promote meaningful lives for them, thus strengthening the patient-provider relationship. Methods: Mixed quantitative and qualitative descriptive experimental design with narrative data analysis. 40 participants (23 HCPs and 17 chronic pain patients) viewed standardized videos depicting a patient-provider interaction in which the HCP did not look at the patient. Self-assessments and reflections were obtained. Results: Most HCPs recognized the clinical approach in the videos as cold, whereas 41% of patients recognized it as “normal”. When looking into patient’s eyes, 44% of HCPs were unable to identify the patients’ emotions, nor their own feelings. Powerlessness and vulnerability were emotions often felt by the HCP. Patients and HCPs agree that better addressing meaningful activities in a patient’s life, as well as looking at the patient more, would positively impact patient outcomes and pain management. At the one-month follow-up, 74% of HCPs had increased the amount of eye-contact made during their encounters and paid more attention to the relational aspect of their care. Conclusion: We succeeded in making HCPs more aware of the gaze they hold onto their patients, thus encouraging them to change their actions. We attributed the lack of eye contact and lack of focus on meaningful activities to a sense of vulnerability felt by HCPs. We believe that non-verbal communications skills should be more overtly taught in medical school.