The Curse Of Knowledge: Misunderstood Communication Between Doctors And Patients

The Curse of Knowledge plays a big role in misunderstood communication between healthcare staff/physicians and their patients/family members (stakeholders), such as the case of the physician’s communication with Jesica’s family after it was determined that irreversible brain damage had occurred (Burns, Bradley, & Weiner, 2011). The Curse of Knowledge occurs when a communicator (sender of information - physician, in this case) begins to communicate a piece of knowledge to a listener (receiver of information - Jesica’s family in this case) that has no knowledge or understanding of what is being communicated. Medical terminology and explanations come from healthcare staff, such as physicians, nurses, and medical specialists who have been educated

“Negative or ambiguous relationships, poor credibility, conflicting belief systems, conflicting interests, and communication mismatches” are the five common barriers of communication (Burns, Bradley, & Weiner, 2011, p. 168). Healthcare staff and physicians must plan and strategies their approaches to communicating the clinical knowledge that they have to their patients and the patient’s family members who have limited or no clinical knowledge in order to turn the barriers into assets (Burns, Bradley, & Weiner, 2011). To do this, healthcare staff and physicians must attempt to view the particular situation from the perspective of the stakeholder’s. In other words, healthcare staff and physicians must put themselves in the stakeholder’s shoes, maybe imagine or remember their own limited understanding of clinical information before being trained in the clinical

Healthcare providers should always remind themselves that their patient’s and family member’s point of view is more important than their own (Burns, Bradley, & Weiner, 2011, p. 171). A healthcare provider’s communication decisions could have a positive or negative affect on their credibility and that should not be taken