Podcast on the Art of the Patient Conversation: Healthcare Provider Perspectives to Improve Outcomes in Multiple Sclerosis.

Health literacy has been identified as key to improving patient outcomes and is particularly important for patients facing chronic illnesses such as multiple sclerosis (MS). Low health literacy rates can negatively impact communication between healthcare providers and patients and is associated with poor health outcomes. It is critical to raise awareness of conversational techniques to healthcare providers that can support more effective communication with patients. In this podcast article, nurse practitioners discuss multimodal strategies that enable appropriate conversations to meet patients' needs through the following four techniques: patient-centric language, teach-back, open-ended questions, and active listening and paraphrasing. These techniques are incorporated into example patient-provider conversations to demonstrate their effectiveness in clinical practice. Comprehensive patient conversations and optimizing patient interactions builds a trustworthy foundation for shared decision-making to improve health literacy and outcomes in patients with MS. Podcast Discussion (mp4 37425 KB).