Why don't we talk?

摘要

AT A RECENT MEETING TO DISCUSS THE AC-creditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) clinical competency of Interpersonal and Communication Skills, David Leach, then CEO of the ACGME, commented that residents and students routinely underestimate the power of their words and emotions on families. He added that we should never take ourselves and our words for granted; our patients don't. Early on, we learn the intellectual truth of those statements. How do we come to know it viscerally?