Patient Communication Skills Flashcards
7 cards from real LPCC practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Patient Communication Skills flashcards as text
A client with low health literacy is given a written treatment plan. To ensure comprehension, the counselor should BEST:
Answer: Use the teach-back method by asking the client to explain key points in their own words
The teach-back method directly confirms comprehension rather than assuming it from a signature or silence.
Which of the following BEST characterizes empathic attunement?
Answer: Accurately sensing and communicating the client's emotional experience as if from inside their frame of reference
Empathic attunement means perceiving the client's inner world accurately and communicating that perception back without losing the 'as if' quality.
A client who is mandated to counseling states, 'I don't want to be here.' The counselor's MOST effective opening response is to:
Answer: Acknowledge the client's position and express genuine curiosity about their perspective
Acknowledging ambivalence or opposition without defensiveness establishes safety and models genuine respect for the involuntary client.
During a session, a counselor frequently interrupts the client to offer advice. This behavior PRIMARILY undermines:
Answer: Accurate empathy and the client's sense of being heard
Frequent interruptions signal that the counselor's agenda supersedes the client's narrative, eroding empathic rapport.
When using metaphor in therapy, the counselor aims to:
Answer: Bypass conscious defenses and illuminate experience in a fresh, accessible way
Metaphors can make complex emotional experiences more tangible and accessible, often bypassing over-intellectualization.
A client begins disclosing a new, highly distressing topic with only five minutes left in the session. The BEST response is to:
Answer: Acknowledge the importance of the topic and collaboratively plan to address it next session
Acknowledging the significance while setting a clear plan respects the client's disclosure without opening material that cannot be safely processed in limited time.
A counselor using solution-focused brief therapy would MOST likely ask which type of question?
Answer: 'What would be different in your life if the problem were solved?'
SFBT uses future-focused miracle and scaling questions to direct attention toward desired outcomes rather than problem etiology.