Has your health care provider ever said something you didn’t understand or given you advice that didn’t fit your lifestyle? When that happens, are you too nervous to speak up? If your answer is “yes,” you are not alone. Many of us feel too nervous to ask our health care provider questions—or to disagree with him or her. It can be hard to say, “I’m not sure I understand,” or “I don’t think that will work for me.” More than likely, you don’t want to be seen as a difficult patient or one who takes up too much of your health care provider’s valuable time.
What you most likely do in response to unrealistic advice or a confusing suggestion is just smile politely and keep quiet. But the easiest way is not always the best way. And the easiest way doesn’t get you the best health care or help you create a partnership with your provider.
Get involved
It may surprise you to learn that most health care providers wish their patients would speak up more often. They want and need to know if you don’t understand something they have said. After all, you can’t follow advice you don’t understand. For example, your health care provider may have prescribed a new medicine to lower your blood pressure. You need to know if you should add the new medicine to the medicines you are already taking or replace one of your old medicines with the new one.
Diabetes care today can be very confusing because there is so much to know, and there are often a number of medicines to take. Your health care provider wants to know if his or her advice seems too difficult for you to follow. Advice from your health care provider isn’t good if it doesn’t fit your life. For example, “walk 30 minutes a day” is not good advice if there isn’t a safe place to walk near your home.
If you don’t speak up, your health may suffer. Here’s what can happen: You and your health care provider have the same goal. You both want you to get the best care you can get. For your health care provider to give you this, you need to be open and honest about your life and how you have been taking care of yourself. You and your health care provider need to both talk and listen to each other to feel satisfied with your visits and your care.
Guidelines for your visit
There are several things you can do during your visit to make this two-way communication work. First, if you know you have questions or problems you want to clear up during the visit, write them down before your visit. This will help you remember to bring them up. Keep a paper and pen handy at your visits to write down new things your health care provider suggests, or ask him or her to write these things down for you. At the end of the visit, tell your health care provider that you want to repeat what you plan to do at home to be sure that you both are clear. If you leave the office not fully understanding the advice you have been given, both you and your health care provider lose.
It is also a bad idea to agree with advice you receive at your office visit if you can’t do it or afford it. Keep in mind, it is not disrespectful to let your health care providers know you can’t do what they suggest and let them know why. Often he or she can offer another idea or treatment that will work just as well. Remember, you are the final decision maker in what you will do, not your health care provider. If you speak up and your health care provider gets annoyed, then it might be time to think about choosing another provider.
After your visit
If you get home and something does not make sense, remember that it is never too late to clear things up. Call your health care provider right away.
Keep in mind that both you and your health care provider want the same thing: high-quality health care for you. And part of your job is to speak up when you need to. Don’t forget—it’s your health at stake. Speak up and take good care of it.
