Listening
A major part of the communication between you and your patient is listening. You can tell a lot about a patient by listening to them. When communicating and listening to your patient, often times it helps if you reduce the distance between the two of you. It is hard to actively listen to your patient if you are all the way across the room.
You should have empathy for your patients; you never know what is happening in another persons life. Essentially, put yourself in their shoes.
It's important to give your patient adequate time to respond to any questions you may ask. Don't rush them.
Therapeutic Listening - You not need to give your patients advice, just support. Patients don't always want answers, they want someone to truly listen to them.
When you're using therapeutic listening, a conversation may go like this:
Patient: I feel so bad today.
Technologist: I'm sorry to hear that; I hope you're better soon.
Again make sure that you're giving them support, not advice. When the patient asks difficult questions, you can answer a question with a question. This may help them to further think about the situation.
Patient: I don't think my doctors helping me.
Technologist: What do you think you should do about that?
When a patient asks you hard questions or says harsh statements:
Patient: I been through so much, I just want to give up.
Technologist: Do think you should give up?
You also need to consider, your patient may be experiencing grief over hearing a bad prognosis. Patients may be angry, afraid or depressed. The patient may also ask for reassurance, give them what they need without using clichés. When a patient receives bad news, he/she may be angry with the entire world. When this occurs you should be very kind and understanding with your patient, but don't be fake. You want to get the exam done as efficiently and effectively as you can. You must be careful with your patients, remember, you cannot give them a diagnosis or tell them what is seen on their x-ray. You do not want to be negative about the facility, the patient's doctor or any other aspect of the patient's care. Remember, you should support the patient and listen to them, but you should not give them advice.