Table 2.

Effective communication techniques: select themes and illustrative quotes

Effective communication techniques	Quotes
Thoroughness	[translated from Spanish] “...Well, they were saying almost everything. If they were gonna...do something they would always tell me what were they gonna do, how it was gonna happen...they would always tell me everything...it was good because they would say everything they were gonna do for my baby.”
Use of multiple methods to ensure understanding	“...the surgeon...he was my favorite person because he knew what he needed to do to save my son but he wasn't my favorite person of explaining things, only because he – it was like there was no middle ground like he either dumbed it down really, really, really, really like...you're dumb...you don't understand anything or he was talking in...medical terms.”
Timeliness	“Yeah, we were just kind of waiting. Not really sure when that person [the doctor] would arrive...we had no idea when we were gonna see anyone and we actually didn't know if we would see a doctor that night ...that was probably the toughest thing, was just waiting and waiting and waiting and not knowing when we would see [the doctor].”
Listening	“...[the doctor was] just so calm...his voice was just very calm...he wasn't rushing, he wasn't talking really quickly...[he answered] every question, even if we felt like it was dumb...[he was] giving us the time of day and not...ever treating us like we were-just another number.”
Preparation for decisions and outcomes	“...my son was not normal. They had told me from the time that we entered the hospital and the trauma team, from the time that we left that he would be fully normal and that in six weeks, he could go back to swimming. He could go back to, you know, as soon as that bone healed, that he would be a normal kid again. He would be his normal self.”