Communication Rx: Transforming Healthcare Through Relationship-Centered Communication

CHAPTER 3

Skill Set One: The Beginning of the Encounter

Let’s start at the very beginning! A very good place to start. —“Do-Re-Mi,” The Sound of Music¹

I (Auguste Fortin) recently went to the dermatology clinic at my HMO to have a worrisome mole looked at. I was sitting on the exam table, naked except for my underwear and a paper sheet, when the dermatologist startled me by walking briskly in and asking, “Where’s the mole?” It felt odd to be examined by a stranger whose name I didn’t even know.

In recent years, heightened awareness about the power of the first impression has permeated popular and academic literature. Within even the first few seconds of an encounter, a person makes an unconscious judgment about the person they are meeting, a ...