CHAPTER 1 What Guides Professional Communication? Who Decides? When considering how to communicate in clinical situations, it is reasonable to wonder "Who decides how I should communicate as a professional?" There are numerous factors and influences that guide the practice of clinical report writing and communication with patients, and no one source provides definitive answers on how to communicate in the clinical world. Considerations regarding research evidence for best practice, reimbursement -- CHAPTER 2 Audiologist as a Communicator: Knowing Your Communication Partner   Audiology is a care-based profession, meaning, of course, that it is focused on people. Our patients are the reason we do what we do. In order to communicate with our patients and to be of help to them, we first have to understand them and their unique experience. Lao Tzu, the ancient Chinese philosopher, said, "Knowing others is intelligence -- knowing yourself is true wisdom." This chapter will focus on the truth of th -- CHAPTER 3 Audiologist as Detective: Gathering Evidence   Prior to initiating contact with a patient, the audiologist should have a goal for the encounter and a plan for how to reach that goal. For diagnostic testing, the goals should include: (a) obtaining information relevant to the presenting concern, (b) obtaining information about the patient's symptoms and audiologic history, (c) communicating instructions about evaluation to obtain appropriate results, and (d) ensuring that the patient und.

CHAPTER 4 Audiologist as Counselor: Telling the Story Well   When considering the various ways that ideas can be communicated, perhaps the most useful principle is to tell the story well. It is common in everyday life to communicate all manner of information, stories, and questions. In the real world, most people are adept at tailoring their intended message to their audience, using appropriate terminology and conveying information in a way that the receiver will understand. When people tell sto -- CHAPTER 5 Written Communication   At some point in the evaluation and treatment process it will be necessary to put your actions, findings, and thoughts into written format. The written documentation and reporting of audiologic encounters may be in many forms, including medical record documents and reports, letters to a referral source, and progress notes. The nature of what you write within these documents may also vary as a function of the referral source or intended reader. This chapter summa -- CHAPTER 6 Documenting   Dr. Lawrence Weed gave a grand rounds presentation to a group of medical professionals in Chicago in 1971. During this lecture, Dr. Weed equated medical records to patients themselves. He pointed out that there is no way a provider can retain in his or her memory every detail of a patient's history, symptoms, diagnoses, or treatment plans. The only way to have access to such information is to write it down. If the patients were present, this information could be asked, as.

CHAPTER 7 Reporting: Telling the Story Well   One of the most important aspects in the provision of health care is reporting results of an evaluation or treatment outcome. The challenge of reporting is describing what was found or what was done in a clear, concise, and consistent manner. The nature of a report can vary greatly, depending on the nature of the medical record, the setting, and the referral source to whom a report is most often written. Throughout this book, we have tried to stress -- CHAPTER 8 Sample Reporting and Documentation   In this final chapter, we present examples of reporting and documentation across a variety of clinical applications. As we alluded to throughout this text, the exact format and style of reporting varies widely across clinics and is often dictated to a substantial extent by requirements or preferences of a given setting and institution. In fact, it is doubtful that most of us could even reach consensus on the wording to be used within a given report,.