Many times, practitioners may underestimate the impact of their interactions with their patients. Often with limited time, dietitians rush in and out may wonder if they have made a difference and met the patient needs. What can the dietitian do to ensure that they are helpful?
Current research[i] shows that patients like it when dietitians listen to them, and take time to build rapport with them in the course of giving nutrition counseling. They also liked it when dietitians were approachable, friendly and shored personal information and showed an interest in them. In this study, a patient put this into words sharing “She listened to me and believed my problems. The support that was made available to me made all the difference!”[1] They concluded too that it was important to their care if a dietitian empathized with them and understand the challenges.
Why is this so important to patient care, that the dietitian show an interest in the patient and their situation? In a three-part assessment of Mattering[ii], mattering to the health professional supports the patient to feel that they matter in life. Mattering to the patient’s larger community and mattering to the Cosmos are the other two aspects of mattering in living.
Mattering in living and finding meaning and purpose in life are really important factors in managing health behaviors. If a person feels that they matter to others, that they have meaning and purpose in living, they are much more likely to be motivated to eat in a healthy manner and have lower risk for obesity and chronic disease.[iii]
Dietitians have an extremely important opportunity to help patients build a sense of mattering, meaning and purpose in living by showing an interest in the patient themselves…to get into their experiences and who that they care. We are much more than information machines that drop helpful facts. We help witness to their basic worth as humans and their spot on this planet. We help them tap into their meaning, purpose, their spirituality and specialness for being here.
As healthcare professionals, we want to step back ourselves and consider our own mattering, our meaning, purpose, our spirituality so we can be agents of transformation for our patients.
[i] Hancock REE, Bonner G, Hollingdale R & Madden AM,(2012)If you listen to me properly, I feel good, a qualitative examination of patient experiences of dietetic consultations. J Hum Nutr Diet, 25, 275-284 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-277X.2012.01244.x
[ii] Park, G et al, Meaning in Life as a comprehension, purpose and mattering: towards integration and new research questions, Review of General Psychology, (2017), 20(3), 205-220
[iii] Ryff C, Soren A, Introduction to this Special Issue on New Thinking on Psychological Health: Find Purpose and Meaning in Life. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021, 207168
