Principles to Guide Healthcare Professionals on How to Introduce Themselves

This guidance is not intended to be a definitive script but instead to support healthcare professionals in putting patients at ease, to assist with shared decision making and improve the patient experience overall. [...] The principles were created through collaboration between doctors and PatientsVoices@RCoA and reflect patient-empowering initiatives such as #hellomynameis. Principles The GMC’s Guidance on Decision Making and Consent (2020) makes it clear that the information that should be shared with patients includes: “the names and roles of key people who will be involved in their care, and who they [...] Bearing in mind that patients are sometimes unaware that anaesthetists are medically qualified doctors, and that other healthcare professionals may be delivering some of their anaesthetic care, we consider it essential that the explanation of the ‘role’ should include whether the individual is a medically qualified doctor. [...] Most patients will also find it helpful to have a simple explanation of what they will actually be doing to/ for the patient. [...] “Hello, I’m Dr (First name), Surname and I’ll be working in the team led by the consultant Dr Y. [...] I’ll be [brief description of main role today].” Anaesthesia associates should include the fact that they are not medically qualified doctors as part of their explanation. [...] Members of the anaesthesia team who are not medically qualified doctors should correct people who refer to them as doctor or terms traditionally used to describe an anaesthetic doctor e.g. [...] anaesthetist, so that there is clarity for patients about the background of those involved in their care. [...] Non-medically qualified doctors who hold a PhD, should also be clear that they are not a medically trained doctor. [...] This information should be made available to patients pre-operatively and visible within patient areas. PatientsVoices@RCoA plan to produce an infographic on the roles of the anaesthesia team that will assist with this. Further resources care/anaesthesia-team