Interpersonal and Communication Skills

  • Demonstrate the ability to provide direct communication to the referring physician or appropriate clinical personnel when interpretation of a laboratory assay reveals an urgent, critical, or unexpected finding and document this communication in an appropriate fashion.
  • Demonstrate the ability to communicate the vision of the CP service role to other clinicians as well as to other healthcare personnel and administrators to develop clinically advantageous and cost-effective strategies.
  • Conduct both individual consultations and presentations at multidisciplinary conferences that are focused, clear, and concise.
  • Choose effective modes of communication (listening, nonverbal, explanatory, questioning) and mechanisms of communication (face-to-face, telephone, e-mail, written), as appropriate. Written communications must be articulate, legible, and comprehensive.
  • Demonstrate skills in obtaining informed consent, including effective communication to patients about procedures, alternative approaches, and possible complications of laboratory-based patient care diagnostic and therapeutic activities, such as those related to transfusion medicine.
  • Demonstrate skills in educating colleagues and other healthcare professionals which includes:
    • Helping other residents obtain proficiency in laboratory medicine.
    • Working well with medical technologists and to present laboratory medicine concepts to them effectively in continuing education settings and in the day-to-day laboratory environment.
    • Educating non-pathology clinicians and other healthcare workers, including pharmacists, nurses, residents, medical students, and others, about topics such as the fundamental principles of pathophysiology underlying test design/interpretation and the approach to choosing and interpreting laboratory tests.
    • Understanding the principles one must follow when educating other practicing pathologists through publications or seminars on new testing and therapeutic strategies, research discoveries, and other cutting-edge professional knowledge.