Communication Rx: Transforming Healthcare Through Relationship-Centered Communication

PREFACE

There is a direct link between the quality of your communication and the quality of your life. —J. Stewart¹

I (Laura Cooley) will always remember the day when I truly realized the value of authentic communication and relationships in healthcare. My father was too weak from the cancer, chemotherapy, and radiation, and their side effects, to even walk into the clinic that day. It was hard to believe that only two years prior he had been a healthy 63-year-old man who was hiking and gardening regularly.

When the oncologist, Dr. Brown, finally rushed in (after failing to greet my mother or me), he stood over my father’s wheelchair, reviewed the chart, and abruptly flipped my father’s hands over to inspect the raw burns on his palms from the ...