Better Conversations, Better Care

with Guest Margret Gretchen Schwarze, MD, MPP, FACS and Amy Zelenski, PhD

This conversation explores the challenges and strategies involved in helping clinicians, particularly surgeons, improve their communication and decision-making practices to provide better patient-centered care. Dr. Gretchen Schwarze, a vascular surgeon and medical ethicist, and Dr. Amy Zelenski, an education researcher, discuss how their collaborative work aims to shift clinicians' mindsets and behaviors around informed consent, prognostic communication, and shared decision-making. They share how surgeons often struggle to move beyond a "fix it" mentality to meaningful improvements in patients' lives. Dr. Schwarze advocates reframing the surgeon's role as assessing whether an operation can help the patient achieve their goals, rather than just fixing a problem. With background in theater, Dr. Zelenski discusses the power of improv-based strategies like the "two-minute rant" and other techniques in cultivating empathy and empowering clinicians to respond rather than react to what is happening in the surrounding environment.

---

RESOURCES

• Zaza SI, Arnold RM, Schwarze ML. Innovations in Surgical Communication 4—Present the Downsides of Surgery, Not Just Risks. JAMA Surg. 2023;158(10):998–1000. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2023.3650

• Haug KL, Clapp JT, Schwarze ML. Innovations in Surgical Communication—Provide Your Opinion, Don’t Hide It. JAMA Surg. 2023;158(10):993–994. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2023.2574

• Schwarze ML, Kruser JM, Clapp JT. Innovations in Surgical Communication 2—Focus on the Goals of Surgery. JAMA Surg. 2023;158(10):994–996. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2023.3340

• Schwarze ML, Clapp J, Arnold RM. Innovations in Surgical Communication 3—Promote Deliberation, Not Technical Education. JAMA Surg. 2023;158(10):996–998.