Listening to Patients and Gathering Information
Section outline
-
Listening to patients is an important fundamental skills of genetic counselors. There are two ways that we can manifest listening to patients - (1) through our attending skills; and (2) through the use of primary empathy skills. In this topic we will elaborate on the attending skills and primary empathy skills and discuss strategies on how we can apply these techniques effectively on our practice.
Another important skill of a genetic counselor is asking effective questions - knowing when, what, and how to ask questions. Two types of questions are important - (1) closed questions; and (2) open questions. Both are important in genetic counseling and depending on the reason we use them, we ensure that the goals of genetic counseling are achieved. In this topic, we will discuss these two types of questions and the strategies on asking questions effectively.
-
In the role play video that you watched, comment on the:
1. The attending skills that the genetic counselor employed. Identify the skills that you saw and explain how these contribute to the overall counseling session.
2. The primary empathy skills that the genetic counselor employed. Identify the empathy responses of the counselor and explain how these contributed in further elucidating the thoughts and emotions of the client.
3. The effectiveness of the questions the genetic counselor asked.