Cada persona es un Mundo 

By Carmen Priego-Perez, MD, University of Texas at Austin, Rachel Salas, MD, MED, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Healthcare trainees face challenges that extend beyond diagnosing illnesses or prescribing medications. They often must navigate challenging conversations with patients and family members. One recent study showed that during their neurology clerkship, students identified the most common topics of these challenging conversations: (1) new disability, (2) poor prognosis, (3) prognostic uncertainty, (4) terminal diagnosis, and (5) end-of-life care.

In Spain, there’s a saying: “Cada persona es un Mundo,” meaning “Each person is a World.” But in medicine, each patient is an entire universe. Beyond their diseases, patients bring unique backgrounds, emotions, family situations, and social histories, altogether known as personomics. Understanding the whole patient requires delving into these complexities, for which effective communication is key. 

The unique role of medical students  

Medical students hold a unique position in patient care, often having more time to spend with patients than other healthcare team members. They often can spend additional time with patients, allowing them to build rapport, listen carefully, and address concerns that may not have surfaced during brief rounds. This may alleviate patients’ anxiety, answer lingering questions, and provide much-needed emotional support. 

Students want to be helpful while learning and interacting with patients, but their knowledge and abilities are usually underestimated. By utilizing medical students, educators can mitigate time constraints, improve workflow, and, most importantly, improve patient care.  

To help students navigate these conversations, Communication Cards provide them with a framework that can help them feel more confident in their interactions. It also opens the door for students to have conversations with the rest of the healthcare team, improving multidisciplinary collaboration. Students also can also provide patients with the opportunity to use them as a bridge to ask additional questions to their medical team, which can be extremely meaningful for their care. 

Furthermore, the card tool can contribute to identifying the correct diagnosis and optimal treatment for some patients. It can help trainees become advocates for their patients, bringing valuable insights back to the medical team, encouraging further discussions, and identifying miscommunications. 

Effective communication is the key to patient-centered care. By prioritizing teaching and modeling communication skills and incorporating tools like the Communication Card, clinicians can facilitate trainees’ growth. 

This piece expresses the views solely of the author. It does not necessarily represent the views of any organization, including Johns Hopkins Medicine.