Improve your communication skills with your dental patients. What horse sense can teach you.
Lynn Carlisle, DDS
Looking for ways to improve your doctor/team/patient relationships? Want to improve your dental patient communications? You can use this in your next team meeting.
Recently, a new ISOC member joined after reading this article. Often, when this happens, I will re-read the article to see if it still applies. I think this article still does, so I am re-posting it. This article appeared February 6, 2004.
Using horse sense in teaching the doctor-patient relationship. If you are a long time member of In a Spirit of Caring, you know I am a critic of the way students are taught in dental schools. I read an article on an innovative approach used at the University of Arizona to
teach medical students about the doctor-patient relationship. You can apply this approach in your practice. The article appeared in the Arizona Republic in 2004 with the title:
"A stable influence" by Kerry Fehr-Snyder. Tucson neurosurgeon Allan Hamilton stood in the middle of a round
horse pen, coaching one of his medical students on how to
persuade a gray Arabian mare to step on a crackly blue tarp for a
carrot.The mare refused, proving bribes don't always work for horses -
or in medicine, for that matter. "This is reminiscent of 'Don't worry, honey, this isn't going to
hurt, and afterward, you'll get a lollipop', Hamilton told eight
University of Arizona medical students taking his Medicine &
Horsemanship class.
 I was watching myself with my patients and thinking, boy, if
this was a horse, I'd get my head kicked. 
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Allan Hamilton,MD
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Hamilton, who has a small horse ranch, talked about how he got
the idea to use horses to teach the doctor-patient relationship. "I was watching myself with my patients and thinking, 'Boy, if
this was a horse, I'd get my head kicked,' " he said. " Horses
are absolutely totally emotionally honest," Hamilton said. "They're
not going to trust you and then turn around and kick you in
the back." The innovative course is in its third year at the UA. In the UA
curriculum, medical students have to prove they understand the
nuances of the doctor-patient relationship before they graduate.
Other universities, including Stanford and the University of
California-San Francisco, are considering a similar class,
Hamilton said. Hamilton gives the students other assignments to do between
classes to improve their interpersonal communication skills with
people. One is to use listening skills with clerks at stores. Students also practice their bedside manner at a clinic where
patients agree to be videotaped. Afterward, the tapes are
reviewed and student performance critiqued. "Every time we do video critiques, I still learn a lot about
myself," said Hamilton. This is very encouraging to see a creative approach to teaching
about the doctor-patient relationship. Even more encouraging is
it's presence in the curriculum. You could do a similar thing with your team. Find a horse
whisperer and watch him or her work with horses. Then have a
discussion with the horse whisperer on how his or her work would apply
to dentistry. Or, rent the DVD "The Horse Whisperer" with Robert Redford and
watch it in a team meeting. Then have a discussion on how the
principles could apply to dentistry. Two other good ideas from this article are to video tape your
interviews with patients (with their written agreement) and to
practice your listening skills with clerks, reps, family, or any person that you meet.
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Excellent article! I especially appreciated it as I have been teaching equine facilitated Lead Management for over 10 years. Individuals, groups, anyone who wants to positively influence another can learn so much, and so much faster, when "taught" by a 1200 lb "patient" or "employee"!
Lon Peckham, DMD
(I hate to run the risk of being too commercial, but this is something I'm really excited about. If you want to learn more about my program, you can start here, http://www.thepeckhamfoundation.com/node/11556.)
To read more about Allan Hamilton, MD and his innovative approach to teaching medical students (the "Medicine and Horsemanship" class may have been discontinued at U of A), go to: Equine Assisted Therapy ASTEC Program in Medical Humanities He has also written a book: The Scalpel and the Soul
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