Patient-centered communication

“This might hurt.”

This is not a line that many children (or adults, let’s be honest) want to hear when they go to the hospital. Imagine how you would feel when hearing “While I work, can you tell me about your favorite thing to do? This will be over before you know it.”

Feel better? Me too.

The power of communication on our feelings is remarkable. And we can put that to good use. Words can be a major asset in making a patient feel comfortable on their journey to recovery. And that is exactly what these posters are intended to do: to help doctors, nurses, paramedics, and anyone else who works on the pediatric ward, to find the right words to say.

These posters were designed specifically for the pediatric ward of a local hospital in Haarlem. The lines were inspired by the “Skills 4 Comfort” course.