The words to use
- Teach-back
- Asking someone to explain in their own words what you've told them. NICE says it is more than asking "do you understand?": it checks how well you explained.
- Chunk and check
- Giving information in small pieces rather than all at once, and checking understanding between each piece before moving on (NICE shared decision-making guideline).
- Open question
- A question that can't be answered with yes or no, such as "What's worrying you most?" It lets the person tell you what matters to them.
- Material risk
- A risk that a reasonable person in the patient's position, or this particular patient, would see as significant. After Montgomery (2015), doctors must take reasonable care to discuss them.
- SBAR
- Situation, background, assessment, recommendation: a structured way to hand over or escalate critical information so nothing important is lost.
