site.btaGuidebook Seeks to Help Bulgarian Doctors Communicate with Pediatric Patients and Their Families

A guidebook seeks to help Bulgarian medics in their communication with pediatric patients and their families. It is an adaptation of a guidebook by the Texas Children’s Hospital and is the first publication of its kind in Bulgaria. "Good communication between medics and children patients and parents improves the vitals of the young patients," said Kremena Kuneva, co-founder of Danaya Foundation, as she presented the guidebook. The Bulgarian version has been created by experts adapting the original text to the Bulgarian needs.

The guidebook is the fruit of decades of work by the world's best child healthcare specialists and a year of volunteer work by a team of Bulgarian experts. It will be distributed at no cost in hospitals and medical universities in the hope that it can reach as many doctors, nurses and medical students as possible. 

Some 140,000 children get hospitalized in Bulgaria every year, and lack of trust and information remain the worst problems in the Bulgarian health care system, said Kremena Kuneva. She added that the goal of her organization, Danaya, is to make child healthcare "more human, better and with greater care for the emotions and rights of patients". 

In her words, Bulgaria is lagging behind in communication with patients. A quality communication between the two sides also has benefits for the medical and managerial teams of hospitals, she added.

Pediatrics professor Rada Markova said that the golden rule for pediatricians is that they always should greet and part with their patients with a smile. "It is important for the doctor to hear what children and their parents are telling them - and also how they communicate with each other," she said. She argued that pediatricians also have to be psychologists. 

She believes that improving communication will help address many of the problems in pediatrics - and in society in general.