In my career as a nurse, I learned patients and their families quickly became buried in the foreign landscape filled with medicalese, computerized monitoring equipment beeping in varying levels of alarming tones, and more increasingly, nurses and doctors peering at computer screens instead of their patients. Patients often felt unseen, unheard, and misunderstood, leaving many with the impression that the human touch had left the building.
I was able to build trust with my patients using one simple and free, technique. Listening. More often than not, it was what wasn’t being said that carried more weight than with what was. This was especially true with patients who lived in an over-domineering situation or a pediatric patient. Through the years I leaned into this skill, honing it with a healthy dose of respecting my innate intuition. Combining these, I was able to help prevent potential bad outcomes without being able to pinpoint any specific ‘one’ thing.
Doctors and nurses who build a trusting relationship with patients use these 6 letters, E I L N S T. What words do these letters spell? Two critically important words – Silent and Listen. Those who use these tools are more respected, and their instructions better understood and followed than those who hasten through patient encounters.
Being at the bedside of thousands of patients gave me so much. Many patients told me life stories of pain, burden, sorrow, grief as well as happiness, joy, and fulfillment.
I’m truly grateful for the trust they put in me. They taught me to be kind, compassionate, empathetic, and an expert using E I L N S T.
I’m confident E I L N S T will work in all areas of life. Today, I invite you to become an E I L N S T expert too.
Thank you for your support Dennis
Our pleasure always, my friend …