Pulmonary Function testing is almost unique among medical tests in that it requires maximum effort and cooperation from the patient for quality results. The better you are able to communicate with a patient the more likely you are to be able to get good quality test results. This is one of the more interesting and the more difficult parts of being a technician.
Performing tests means being a cheerleader to some extent and over the years I’ve seen a number of different approaches. At one extreme, which thankfully I haven’t seen for a while, is what I call the “Nazi” approach which is mostly yelling and telling the patient as condescendingly as possible that they aren’t doing the test right and to do it again. At the other extreme is the “Flower Child” who is chatty, sympathetic, cheerful and can never, ever bring themselves to tell the patient they are doing anything wrong.
Neither extreme can consistently get good quality tests out of patients because neither makes an effort to explain what the tests are for, how they need to be performed and most importantly, to lead and correct the patient in a way that makes sense to the patient. The three most important rules in patient communication is first to explain everything, second to keep explaining and finally to explain some more. I’ve always found that every bit of time I spent explaining what, how and why always saved double that when it came to performing the tests.