A patient can nod throughout an explanation and still leave without understanding what has happened, what the medication is for, or what they are expected to do next.
That is one of the more deceptive problems in healthcare communication. From the healthcare professional’s perspective, everything may have been explained. From the patient’s perspective, the information may have arrived too quickly, contained unfamiliar terminology, competed with anxiety, or simply answered a question they were not actually asking.
Clear patient communication, therefore, is not just about speaking fluent English or replacing difficult words with easier ones. It is about making clinical information understandable, relevant and usable.
For internationally qualified healthcare professionals, this distinction becomes particularly important. You may know the medicine. You may know the terminology. The professional skill lies in deciding how to communicate that knowledge to the individual sitting in front of you.
Clear Patient Communication Skills in Healthcare
Why Explaining Medical Information Is Harder Than It Looks
Healthcare professionals spend years acquiring a specialised vocabulary.
Eventually, words such as hypertension, contraindication, benign, oedema and prognosis become ordinary. We hear them so often that it becomes surprisingly difficult to remember that they are not ordinary words for everyone else.
Consider:
“Your results indicate hypertension.”
A healthcare professional knows exactly what that means.
A patient may know it has something to do with blood pressure. They may think it means their blood pressure is temporarily high because they are anxious. They may have heard the word before without really knowing what it means.
Now consider:
“Your blood pressure has been consistently higher than the healthy range. We call this hypertension.”
The medical term has not disappeared. It has simply been given meaning before the patient is expected to understand it.
That small difference captures an important principle of effective communication in healthcare: knowing the terminology is professional knowledge; knowing how to translate it is a communication skill.
Start With What the Patient Already Knows
One of the easiest ways to give a poor explanation is to begin in the wrong place.
Imagine spending several minutes explaining how to administer insulin before discovering that the patient does not yet understand why insulin has been prescribed.
Or explaining the long-term effects of hypertension to someone who believes that “high blood pressure” simply means feeling stressed.
Before adding information, establish the patient’s starting point.
You might ask:
“What have you been told about your condition so far?”
Or:
“What is your understanding of why this medication has been prescribed?”
This does more than prevent unnecessary repetition. It can reveal misconceptions that need to be addressed before new information is introduced.
It also changes the nature of the conversation. Instead of beginning with what I need to tell you, the healthcare professional begins with what do you already understand?
That is a subtle but important shift towards patient-centred communication.
Medical Jargon Is Not the Enemy. Unexplained Jargon Is.
“Never use medical terminology with patients” sounds sensible until you consider how healthcare actually works.
Patients will encounter medical terms in appointment letters, reports, prescriptions, discharge documents, online information and conversations with other healthcare professionals. Sometimes knowing the correct term is useful.
The problem is not necessarily the terminology.
The problem is assuming it has been understood.
A useful approach is:
Meaning first. Medical term second.
For example:
“There is some swelling in your lower legs because fluid is collecting in the tissues. We call this oedema.”
Or:
“This medicine can sometimes lower your blood pressure too much. If that happens, you may feel dizzy or light-headed. The medical term for this is hypotension.”
This is not “dumbing down” medicine.
Quite the opposite. It requires the healthcare professional to understand the subject well enough to explain it accurately without hiding behind professional vocabulary.
More Information Is Not Always Better Communication
Healthcare professionals naturally want patients to be well informed.
But there is a difference between providing sufficient information and providing all available information at once.
Imagine someone has just received a new diagnosis. Within the next few minutes, they hear the name of the condition, what caused it, what the investigations showed, the names of three medications, possible side effects, dietary advice, follow-up arrangements and symptoms requiring urgent medical attention.
Every sentence may be correct.
The patient may remember very little.
Good patient communication skills include knowing how to control the flow of information.
One practical approach is:
Explain → pause → check → continue.
For example:
“The scan shows that you have a small kidney stone. It is about four millimetres in size, and stones of this size can often pass naturally.”
Pause.
“Is that clear so far?”
Then continue:
“The next thing I’d like to explain is how we can manage your pain while that happens.”
The pause is doing useful work. It gives the patient time to process one piece of information before another arrives.
It also gives them an opportunity to ask the question that may otherwise remain unasked.
Give the Patient a Map Before Giving Them the Detail
Sometimes vocabulary is perfectly simple and the explanation is still difficult to follow.
The problem may be structure.
Compare a long, uninterrupted explanation with:
“There are two things I’d like to explain: first, what your test result means, and then what happens next.”
The patient now has a mental map.
This kind of signposting is particularly useful when explaining:
investigation results;
a new diagnosis;
treatment choices;
medication instructions;
risks and side effects;
discharge advice;
follow-up arrangements.
Simple phrases can make complicated information easier to follow:
“There are two main options.”
“The most important thing to remember is…”
“We’ve discussed why this has happened. Can I now explain what we can do about it?”
None of these phrases is sophisticated.
That is precisely the point.
Strong professional communication is not demonstrated by making an explanation sound complicated. It is demonstrated by making something complicated easier to understand.
“Do You Understand?” Doesn’t Always Tell You Whether They Do
Consider this very familiar exchange:
Nurse: “Do you understand?”
Patient: “Yes.”
What has actually been established?
Not very much.
Patients may say yes because they are embarrassed to ask again. They may not want to appear difficult. They may genuinely believe they have understood while having misunderstood one crucial detail.
Where the information is important, it can be more useful to ask the patient to explain it back in their own words.
For example:
“Just so I know I’ve explained it clearly, could you tell me how you’re going to take these tablets when you get home?”
There is an important difference in the wording.
You are not saying, Let me test whether you were clever enough to understand me.
You are saying, Let me check whether I explained this well enough.
If the patient gives the wrong dose or frequency, the misunderstanding can be corrected there and then.
The responsibility for clear communication remains where it should: with the healthcare professional as well as the listener.
Answer the Concern, Not Just the Question
Patients do not always ask what they really want to know.
Consider:
“Is this medication very strong?”
The literal question appears to be about the potency of the medicine.
But perhaps the patient is actually asking:
Is it dangerous?
Or:
Will I become dependent on it?
Or:
My mother took a similar medicine and became very ill. Is that going to happen to me?
Answering only the literal question can therefore produce a perfectly accurate but completely unsatisfactory response.
Sometimes another question is needed:
“Is there something in particular about the medication that’s worrying you?”
Similarly, a patient who repeatedly asks whether a test result is “normal” may be worried about a particular diagnosis but feel unable to say it directly.
A useful healthcare communicator listens for the concern underneath the words.
This is where active listening in healthcare becomes much more than remaining quiet while somebody else speaks. It means noticing cues, exploring uncertainty and recognising when the information being requested is not necessarily the information that is needed.
Reassurance Should Not Become a Promise
Healthcare professionals naturally want to reassure frightened patients.
Sometimes that leads to phrases such as:
“Don’t worry. You’ll be fine.”
The intention is kind.
The problem is that reassurance can accidentally become certainty.
Consider instead:
“I can understand why that sounds worrying. This complication is uncommon, and we’ll also explain what symptoms you should look out for and what to do if they occur.”
The patient has not been dismissed. Their concern has been acknowledged, useful information has been provided, and no promise has been made that the healthcare professional cannot guarantee.
Good reassurance is not the removal of all uncertainty.
It is helping someone understand that uncertainty without making it more frightening than it needs to be.
Risk Needs Particularly Careful Language
Words such as rare, small, likely and unlikely sound straightforward.
They are not always interpreted in the same way.
Tell a patient that there is “a small risk” of a complication and one person may hear almost impossible, while another hears this could happen to me.
Risk discussions therefore require particularly careful communication.
Healthcare professionals should give information appropriate to their role and the clinical situation, explain what the risk means as clearly as possible, and avoid turning probability into certainty.
The patient’s reaction also matters.
Someone who becomes visibly anxious halfway through an explanation may need the healthcare professional to stop, acknowledge the concern and clarify before adding more information.
Communication is not a speech that has to be completed.
It is an interaction that may need to change direction.
Adapt the Explanation to the Person, Not the Diagnosis
There is no single perfect explanation of diabetes, hypertension, anticoagulation or any other condition.
The “best” explanation depends partly on who is listening.
A patient who has managed diabetes for fifteen years does not need the same conversation as someone diagnosed yesterday.
A person with considerable medical knowledge may want detailed information. Someone who has just received frightening news may initially be able to process only the essentials.
Language proficiency, health literacy, hearing, cognitive needs, emotional state and cultural context can all influence how information needs to be communicated.
For internationally qualified healthcare professionals, one assumption is particularly worth avoiding:
Conversational fluency does not necessarily equal health literacy.
A patient may speak excellent English and still be unfamiliar with medical terminology.
The reverse assumption is equally problematic. A patient who speaks English as an additional language should not automatically be spoken to as though they have limited intelligence.
Clear language should remain respectful adult language.
Where a significant language barrier exists, particularly in situations involving consent, complex decisions or significant risk, healthcare professionals should follow the communication and interpreting procedures of the organisation in which they work.
Sometimes the Problem Isn’t the Words
Imagine hearing:
“I need to explain something about your results.”
Said calmly, with the healthcare professional facing you and giving you their attention, it communicates one thing.
Said hurriedly while the healthcare professional looks at a screen or reaches for the door, it can communicate something entirely different.
Words do not operate alone.
Pace, tone, pauses, facial expression, posture and attention influence how an explanation is received.
This becomes especially important when discussing unexpected results, sensitive information or treatment concerns.
Sometimes the most useful communication technique is not another carefully constructed sentence.
It is stopping.
Looking at the patient.
And giving them a moment.
From Technically Correct to Genuinely Clear
Consider a patient recently diagnosed with hypertension.
A clinically accurate explanation might be:
“Your readings indicate persistent hypertension, so you’ve been commenced on an antihypertensive. You’ll require regular monitoring because uncontrolled hypertension increases cardiovascular risk.”
Now compare:
“Your blood pressure has stayed higher than the healthy range on several readings. We call this hypertension. You may feel completely well even when your blood pressure is high, but over time it can put extra strain on your heart and blood vessels.”
Pause.
“That’s why you’ve been prescribed medication to help bring it down. We’ll also check your blood pressure regularly to see how well the treatment is working.”
Then:
“What questions do you have about that?”
The second version is not better merely because it contains easier words.
It has a sequence.
What we found → what it means → why it matters → what we’re doing → what happens next.
That structure can be applied to many clinical explanations.
And it gives healthcare professionals something much more useful than a memorised script: a way of thinking about information from the patient’s perspective.
For Internationally Qualified Healthcare Professionals, This Is Not Just an English Skill
Professionals preparing for OET, clinical examinations, interviews or employment abroad can understandably begin to see communication as another hurdle in the international-registration process.
Pass the English examination.
Demonstrate communication in the clinical examination.
Answer communication questions in the interview.
Then start the “real” clinical work.
Except communication is part of the real clinical work.
For nurses, it appears everywhere: medication education, discharge conversations, pre- and post-procedure explanations, health promotion, handovers, escalation, conversations with relatives and everyday interactions with patients.
An examination can assess aspects of communication.
It cannot make communication complete.
This is why memorising polished phrases has limited value.
A healthcare professional needs to know more than what sentence sounds empathetic?
They need to recognise when empathy is required.
More than what phrase checks understanding?
They need to recognise when understanding has not actually been established.
More than how do I simplify this word?
They need to decide what this particular patient needs to understand before the conversation ends.
Those are clinical judgements expressed through language.
Common Mistakes When Explaining Medical Information
Several habits can make otherwise accurate explanations less effective:
using medical terminology without establishing whether the patient understands it;
giving too much information without pausing;
assuming that a nod or “yes” means the explanation was understood;
answering the literal question while missing the concern behind it;
continuing to provide information after the patient has become confused or distressed;
reassuring with certainty when certainty cannot reasonably be given;
speaking faster because the clinical environment is busy;
oversimplifying language until it becomes patronising;
giving information beyond one’s professional role rather than seeking appropriate clarification.
None of these problems is solved by memorising a better collection of phrases.
The more useful question is:
What does this patient need from this conversation, and how will I know whether they received it?
That is the heart of clear patient communication.
Frequently Asked Questions
How should healthcare professionals explain medical terms to patients?
Start with the meaning in familiar language and introduce the medical term where it is useful. Keep the explanation relevant to the patient’s situation and avoid assuming that a familiar clinical word is familiar to the patient.
What is patient-centred communication?
Patient-centred communication takes account of what the patient already knows, what concerns them, what they want to understand and how they are responding to the conversation. The patient is an active participant rather than simply the recipient of information.
How can nurses check whether a patient has understood?
For important instructions, asking the patient to explain the information back in their own words can reveal misunderstandings that a simple “Do you understand?” may not. It helps to frame this as a check on how clearly the information was explained rather than as a test of the patient.
Should healthcare professionals avoid medical jargon completely?
Not necessarily. Patients may benefit from knowing the correct medical term. The important point is not to leave terminology unexplained. Give meaning first, introduce the term where appropriate, and clarify if the patient appears uncertain.
Why are patient communication skills particularly important for internationally qualified healthcare professionals?
Working in another healthcare system involves more than using English correctly. Healthcare professionals may encounter unfamiliar workplace communication conventions, different levels of health literacy and patients from many linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Being able to adapt an explanation while maintaining clinical accuracy is therefore an important professional skill.
Clear Communication Is Not Simpler Medicine
The purpose of explaining medical information clearly is not to make medicine simplistic.
It is to make clinical knowledge accessible without making it inaccurate.
A healthcare professional knows the terminology.
A skilled healthcare communicator knows when to use it, when to explain it, when to stop talking, when to ask another question and when to check whether the message received was actually the message intended.
For internationally qualified healthcare professionals, that distinction is worth developing deliberately. An English-language examination may test communication at one point in the journey. Clinical practice will test it repeatedly.
And perhaps the most useful question to carry into those conversations is not:
“Did I explain everything?”
It is:
“What did this patient actually understand?”
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