• Question: What attributes and characteristics are important/needed to being successful as a healthcare professional?

    Asked by Karolina to Chris, Emma, Jonathan, Katharine, Shehla, Simon on 12 Jun 2017. This question was also asked by Naomi, ronny.
    • Photo: Jonathan Harte

      Jonathan Harte answered on 12 Jun 2017:


      The best healthcare professionals I know are all good communicators.
      For that you’ve got to watch and listen as well as talk. Non-verbal communication clues are as important as what’s being said.
      Also be Humble.
      Arrogance won’t work most of the time. It can help in surgery sometimes but mostly I think gets in the way of good doctor-patient and doctor-colleague relations.

    • Photo: Emma Rowe

      Emma Rowe answered on 12 Jun 2017:


      Patience! You have to be able to hear your patient out. Communication skills are essential – not just talking, you also have to be able to listen and watch for social cues from your patient. Sometimes what patients say and what patients mean are very different so it’s important to take the time to hear them out and not fill in what you think they mean.
      Kind and caring is also essential to be a nurse, you don’t build good relationships with patients or colleagues if you’re mean.

    • Photo: Katharine Bradbury

      Katharine Bradbury answered on 12 Jun 2017:


      The ideal GP would have excellent communication skills and be patience, persistent, compassionate, curious, observant and resilient.

    • Photo: Christopher Symonds

      Christopher Symonds answered on 13 Jun 2017:


      Compassion is by far the most important and remembering that even if a problem is not a medical emergency, to the patient it is. You also need to be a good listener and non-judgemental as irrespective of a patients life style our job is to help them all equally and professionally. Patience is also high up there in the list of requirements as some patients can find it difficult to discuss things straight away either through embarrassment or learning difficulties or just difficulty with explaining how they feel.

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