'Not feeling heard' in health care: A critical review of the detrimental effects of poor-quality listening.

Listening research focuses on the benefits of good-quality listening rather than the detrimental effects of poor-quality listening on the speaker. The aim of this critical review was to identify what is known about the effects of poor-quality listening in the fields of communication, the workplace, and health care, and to synthesize this knowledge to inform research and practice in health care. Based on the evidence, a multidimensional framework is proposed encompassing clients' affective, cognitive, and behavioral reactions to poor-quality listening in health care, along with relational outcomes concerning the client and healthcare professional. This framework proposes three mechanisms underlying client reactions to perceived poor-quality listening-reflection, engagement, and motivation. When healthcare clients feel not listened to, this can have serious, wide-ranging, and cascading effects on their emotions, thoughts, and actions, leading to poor collaboration, poor-quality relationships with healthcare providers, and a lack of person-centered care.