You could put this down to falling education standards or doctors having insufficient time to spend with patients. It's easy to say it's 'their fault'.
The art of conversation is significantly different from giving instructions. When I go into a doctor's surgery, the introductory conversation is about creating a rapport, helping me feel relaxed enough to share what the doctor really needs to hear from me. Before I leave the surgery I have to convey sufficient information of the symptoms for the doctor to have made the correct diagnosis or assessement. Only then can the doctor provide me with instructions (orders) as to the next steps in making progress - particularly what I have to do to improve.
If the doctor doesn't create the right rapport there's a significant risk that I will not convey all the relevant information; perhaps because I feel intimidated, embarrassed or too deferential. In that situation I would suggest the doctor is at fault in not creating the rapport. However, when I feel comfortable discussing my problem with the doctor but fail to convey all the relevant symptoms, then some of the blame must lie with me. If at the end of the consultation the instructions given to me are too complicated and I cannot understand what I have to do, then the fault surely must be with the doctor. The responsibility has to be with the person who wishes to convey information to communicate in a way which the intended recipient understands. It is the communicator who needs to test for understanding, and if necessary, reshape until such times that it is clear that the instructions are understood. If the doctor doesn't do this there is a loss of patient confidence - what's more, both are losers.
Has this anything whatsoever to do with procurement? Yes, I think so.
