Patient Needs: A Communication Map

There are specific communication situations in which communication is more rigid and limited, such as emergency situations, especially in large disasters. All communication must be focused on saving lives and is, or should be, centralized to avoid confusion and overlapping efforts. These situations are all guided by protocols and we will analyze the most relevant ones. However, when it comes to chronic diseases, there is much less protocol, not because they are less frequent, but because they are much more varied and much of the communication is focused on preserving a patient’s quality of life. Freud told his doctor, when he was informed that he had mouth cancer, “What right do you have to tell me?” remarking that his doctor had never bothered to ask him if he wanted to know his diagnosis or not. The advantage of chronic diseases is that they allow time for the doctor and the patient to get to know each other, which allows every doctor to keep a mental map of their patient and their situation: What every doctor must value is the weight of their word; what they say and the way they say it will be etched in the memory of the patient, who will be able to repeat almost verbatim what they were told for the rest of their life. Knowing the map is not the same as knowing the territory, but it helps a lot with navigating it.