Medical narration: how’s your bedside manner?

You know when you go to the doctor or hospital, Head and shoulders of Sumara, a white woman with brown chin-length hair and blue eyes, she is smiling warmly.and you have to deal with various healthcare professionals during heightened and prolonged levels of stress and worry?

Which doctors and nurses do you prefer – the academically smart and correct ones who robotically tell you what’s wrong and send you on your way, or the emotionally intelligent, empathetic ones who smile warmly and speak with concern?

Look, I love a technically correct and very clever solution as much as the next academic nerd, but when I’m stressed about a medical problem, I want the person talking to me to speak like a caring human, pay attention to me, and reassure me and my loved ones that everyone’s doing their best. It makes me feel calm, heard, and taken care of.

That’s exactly how we want people to feel when they’re listening to a medical narration voice over. Whether the audience are healthcare providers learning a new procedure, or patients finding out the details of a complicated new issue, they need to feel the human connection to help overcome the nerves or stress of learning a (sometimes bloody scary) new thing.

Yes, doctors get nervous too. Be nice to them. 

In fact, a 2018 study by Healthgrades and MGMA* showed that “a meaningful connection between patients and their physician can lead to improved medical care” – so it’s not just to make us feel better, it’s to ensure the best possible outcome.

According to that study, over 52 percent of patients wanted their doctor to have at least one of the following qualities: compassion, comfort, patience, personality and bedside manner.

All of these qualities can (and should) translate into effective  voice overs for medical eLearning, healthcare or pharmaceutical explainer videos or clinical trial procedure videos.

Compassion: “Sympathetic concern for the sufferings of others”. When explaining a complicated medical diagnosis or the workings of a pharmaceutical product, I (the voice actor) need to remember that human beings are listening to this because they’re suffering in some way. My medical voiceovers sound compassionate because I am compassionate.

Comfort: “the easing or alleviation of a person’s feelings of grief or distress.” A video about a person’s medical condition isn’t going to fix the problem – but a warm and reassuring voice can ease the distress a little by calming the listener’s nervous system and making them feel more in control.

Patience: “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious.” The people watching an eLearning course about the new medication they need are likely already anxious. A knowledgeable and appropriately-paced voice explaining patiently how it works can help them absorb all the new information much more easily.

Personality: “the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s distinctive character.” This means: a real human being. We might be okay with robots writing our work emails and doing our vacuuming, but we need real human connection when we’re worried, hurt or confused. A good medical narration voice actor doesn’t just pronounce cool words adroitly; we allow a sense of our own caring personality to seep through the text. Which means people understand those big words much more easily.

Bedside manner: “a doctor’s approach or attitude to a patient” – I’m going to assume the patients surveyed here meant they want a helpful bedside manner! And to me, this really comes down to the good old golden rule – treat other people how you’d want to be treated. When I need to listen to complicated or nerve-wracking information, I want the person delivering it to be calm, friendly and warm. So that’s how I try to deliver my medical narration.

When it comes to medical narration, the best voiceover will be a real human one. And I don’t just mean an actual human being – I mean a person who can access their own compassionate nature and naturally connect with care to the people listening.

As well as deftly pronouncing a bunch of big words. 😉 


 

You can find out more about my medical narration voiceover at www.medicalnarration.com.au 

* https://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/blog/archive/2018/patientperspective.html

0 comments… add one

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *