Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Dec;28(1):2200586.
doi: 10.1080/10872981.2023.2200586.

Healthcare providers and patients: an essay on the importance of professional assertiveness in healthcare today

Claude Richard  1 , Marie-Thérèse Lussier  2 , Bernard Millette  2 , Issam Tanoubi  3
Affiliations

Healthcare providers and patients: an essay on the importance of professional assertiveness in healthcare today

Claude Richard et al. Med Educ Online. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

Professional assertiveness can enable the healthcare provider to confidently share their expertise without seeming authoritarian to the patient. Professional assertiveness is an interpersonal communication skill that helps express opinions or knowledge while respecting similar competencies in others. For healthcare providers, this compares to sharing scientific or professional knowledge with their patients while respecting their person, ideas, and autonomy. Professional assertiveness also connects the patient's beliefs and values with actual scientific evidence and healthcare system constraints. The definition of professional assertiveness might be easy to understand, but it remains challenging to apply in clinical practice. In this essay, we hypothesize that the practical difficulties healthcare providers encounter with assertive communication stem from their misunderstanding of this style.

Keywords: Healthcare system; Professional assertiveness; communication; healthcare provider; patient.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Two-dimensional professional assertiveness concept.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Professional behavioral mouldability.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Zielinski C. Infodemics and infodemiology: a short history, a long future. Pan American J Public Health. 2021;45:1–6. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zarocostas J. How to fight an infodemic. Lancet. 2020;395(10225):676. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mheidly N, Fares J. Leveraging media and health communication strategies to overcome the COVID-19 infodemic. J Public Health Policy. 2020;41(4):410–420. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bourmaud A, de Villars EP, Renault-Teissier E. [Patient partnership and patient education in oncology]. Bull Cancer. 2022;109(5):588–597. - PubMed
    1. Haaser T, Constantinidès Y, Dejean C, et al. Démocratie sanitaire : le patient partenaire de sa prise en charge. Cancer/Radiothérapie. 2020;24(6–7):736–743. DOI:10.1016/j.canrad.2020.06.021 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources