No abstract

The aim of the article is to present Marshall Bertrand Rosenberg's concept of non-violent communication (NVC) and usefulness in the doctor-patient relationship. M. B. Rosenberg's concept of NVC was based on the assumption that a person's natural ability is empathy directed towards other people and towards themselves. However, our culture suppresses these natural abilities. The language offers many expressions that block natural compassion because they are overfilled with moral judgments, judging comparisons, punishments, arousing feelings of guilt or shame. The author of NVC proposes a four-phase model of empathic non-violent and non-manipulative communication, which is the basis for changes in the thought process: observing without judging, recognising, relating the feelings currently experienced to needs (values) and formulating concrete requests instead of demands.

Clinical communication skills have been taught and researched for more than 40 years. This set of processes and communication skills with patients and/or their family, and other healthcare professionals, improves the quality of healthcare services, increases patient involvement in the treatment process and improves job satisfaction. It seems particularly important for physicians working in palliative care to have these skills. The process of pre-graduate and post-graduate training was analysed in terms of teaching clinical communication and the expectations of healthcare professionals, with a particular focus on palliative medicine. The results were compared with those of a survey of 123 1 physicians who identified their training needs in clinical communication. The results show that there is a significant gap between physicians' expectations of their clinical communication skills training and the requirements of the curricula. It is therefore reasonable to modify the existing clinical communication curricula.