Healthcare Communication

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Healthcare Communication

Communication is the basis of operations in the daily lifestyles of all humans. It is the art through which information and news are exchanged. In a sense, it creates the connection that makes it possible to comprehend the desires and expressions of other beings (Tamparo & Lindh, 2008).Health Communication, on the other hand, is the manner in which the promotional health matters/information is transmitted to achieve aimed health literacy. It is the ability to establish stakeholder relationships in a medical sector to ensure medical efficiency according to Nemeth (2008). Health Communication is used to influence the choices that people make regarding the concerns of their health. It is a refinement of communication strategies so to guide people or impart in them the ability to distinguish risks and uncertainties from the recommended practices. For efficiency, the field can always assume many forms, inclusive of verbal and written.In clinical set-ups, the practice plays an enormous role in reducing the gap between the clinical staff and a patient, thus making the system of delivery quite efficient. It is also efficient in ensuring great relations within a staff to promote teamwork, understanding and ability to handle all medical situations comprehensively. Healthcare communication is subject to many factors and should be handled with care by medical professionals. This study is a projection of the important elements of healthcare communication and its effect on a clinical setup.

The Significance of Healthcare Communication

Medical personnel are charged with the responsibility for ensuring that the parties involved in a medical process, the medics, and the patients, are both satisfied. Communication is the biggest medical tool as it can be used to deduce diagnostics from a professional perspective. The ability to effectively communicate to a patient makes it possible for them to project their problems with a greater sense of clarity. On the other hand, communication with patients on a personal level inspires a therapeutic feeling that eases the recovery process for a patient (Nemeth, 2008). That is because it makes them feel loved, valued and cared for by the medical personnel. Communication sets a free mood in a clinical setup and encourages both the patients and medical staffs to mete out their responsibilities appropriately.

Healthcare Communication positively serves in the following ways:

Diagnostic accuracy: Making a well-probed diagnostic involves digging into the medical history of a patient. The outcome of the interview should have the projection of all the relevant details of the medical procedure. Lack of patience and interruptions would hamper the patients willingness and ability to deliver the correct history effectively (Nemeth, 2008). As such, it calls for the clinician to possess excellent communication skills to ensure that the history stories are complete to enable an accurate diagnostic. At the stage of preparing a diagnostics, proper communication also prepares the precepts for an excellent relationship that is significant in the recovery pattern of a patient (Bryan, 2009).Patient satisfaction: Patient satisfaction is achieved through meeting of the elements discussed below.Patients do have the expectation of being accorded the opportunity to tell their medical story. Proper communication skills make it possible to satisfy that expectation and project the medical team with the interests in assisting the patient. The ability to let the patients express themselves makes them have the feeling of being in control and as such inspire their confidence and recovery (Nemeth, 2008). That is because their ideas and concerns seem deeply considered by the medical staff. Communication skills will also inspire a medic to engage a patient in decision-making thus recognizing their mental and social functions, a factor that increases the satisfaction levels of a patient. Communication also increases the amount of time spent with a patient and relieves the patients of pressures that they could be facing from any angle. The pressure is relieved by keeping the patients dignity. Dignified patients tend to be more satisfied (Hugman, 2009).Patient safety: The inability to communicate properly jeopardizes the safety of patients in several aspects. For instance, the errors might lead to wrong diagnostics and a resultant incorrect administration of medication. One-third of the estimated clinical accidents and errors are occurrences that are attributed to poor communication strategy and skills. However, this is not subject to miscommunication between a medic and the patient only, but rather captures the wider scope of professional communication among the staff members (Hugman, 2009).Team satisfaction: Team communication inspires great working relations, efficiency, and job satisfaction. These factors have direct impacts on the manner of service delivery that affects the treatment of a patient. Communication of tasks, responsibilities and ideas make it possible to handle different procedurals effectively with a team spirit (Bryan, 2009). Team satisfaction touches on all the aspects affected by healthcare communication especially patient safety.Client autonomy: Therapeutic listening and talking makes the patients bears the magnificence of autonomy as it inspires the belief that diagnostics are not based on assumptions. That is achieved as the potential to share difficult information is made possible by the professionals (Nemeth, 2008).Non-judgmental environment: Constructive communication inspires trust and confidence and nullifies the probability of verbal and non-verbal judgmental expression upon either party. The aurier set by the constructive communication makes it even a lot easier to acquire information for treatment.Healthcare communication significantly provides a professional with a holistic view of the client by creating the essence of a family-like environment and relation (Hugman, 2009).

As projected, for a patient to meet the level of medical compliance required of them, communication between them and the clinicians is very important (Hugman, 2009). Great consideration should hence be given to healthcare communication to meet the medical objectives of providing sufficient medical care for patients. As a medical practice, the medical personnel should constantly work on improving their ability to communicate effectively with patients. Learning to communicate effectively in a professional set up would also impact on the professionals ability to communicate with effect even outside the professional borders (Nemeth, 2008).

Effect of Ineffective Communication

Non-adherence: Adherence is the projection of a patients behavior with the correlation to the principles and recommendations of a healthcare provider. Non-adherence has led to sacrificial of the clinical practices as patients fail to follow the medical recommendations. The ill practice is thus a giant menace according to Van (2009) that can only be overcome by the medical staffs ability effectively to communicate the relevance and need of adhering to clinical advice. Clarity is very relevant in issuing clinical instructions.Malpractice risks: Communication breakdown between patients and medical staffs often lead to malpractice claims. Malpractice stems from poorly collected medical information and poor patient-clinician relations. In some instances, victimized patients have stated an uncaring attitude from the responsible medical staff.Unconscious Influence: Ineffective communication increases the risks of unconscious influence by the professional. Such influence would hamper the magnitude of the medical services as processes like diagnostics and therapy are based on assumptions. For instance, interrupting a medical story reduces the patients ability to express their medical concerns and as search throws the ball of story completion to the medical staff (Van, 2009).Medical errors: Inability to effectively communicate deliberations, duties and ideas render medical staffs prone to medical errors. It also instills in staff dissatisfaction with the job thus promoting negligence. Staff communication and consultation also enhances professional confidence and courtesy and works entirely to the benefit of a patient.

Principles of Healthcare Communication

The first principle of effective communication is the recognition of the patients communication convenience. As such, an acting professional should make the approach to initiating communication with a patient at the appropriate moments, that is, when the patient feels comfortable expressing their concerns. Consideration is also given to patient status, for instance, patients who have undergone a medical procedure may be exhausted and not with the capacity to effectively communicate (Hugman, 2009).The other principle is the status of the patients physical environment. Most patients do give the preference to privacy and are adamant to express themselves fully in situations that offer little of such. The medical professional should hence ensure that there is adequate privacy to facilitate an open, detailed and organized conversation with a client (Van, 2009). The factor also makes possible to share personal information that could be bearing great significance in the medical process. To make a conversation more casual, the professional should reduce the activity of taking notes and project the normalcy of a usual conversation in which people only aspire to express feelings (Van, 2009).Clarity is also very significant as it mentally prepares a patient for the conversation. As such, it is very significant to enlighten a patient with the requirements and reasons for holding the conversation. However, caution should be applied to ensure that the conversation does not take an angle that is too much professional. A casual relationship sets the precepts for a great relationship that bears trust and makes it easier discuss and implement medical procedures.The most significant aspect of the communication is the ability to develop a non-judgmental attitude. According to Hugman (2009), this would call for great listening skills by the professional thus nullifying the possibilities of unnecessary interruptions. Accepting the storylines of the patient inspires confidence and the belief that medical procedures are not based on assumptions but deductions from analyzed medical stories. Being aware of ones biases and avoiding expressing them is the primary focus on achieving a non-judgmental attitude. Active listening also calls for the ability to interpret the intuitions of a patient. To ensure that the factor is effective, it is advisable to repeat the sentiments of a patient and according them the chance to repeat their remarks.

Communication Theories

An effective communication requires the use of all human senses to comprehend both verbal and non-verbal cues. Significantly, the communication process is also reciprocal as it requires the participation of the health professional and the patient (Tamparo & Lindh, 2008). Several theories have been fronted to explain the verbal and even non-verbal relations that affect the healthcare system.

Peplaus Interpersonal Relations Theory

Peplaus theory projects a therapeutic relation process between the nurse and the patient and has influenced most nursing processes. The theorist delineated a four-phased interpersonal nurse-client relationship.

The first phase is the orientation phase, in which the nurse should express empathy with the patient as she bids to understand the patients concerns. At this stage, there should be much information sharing as question presents clarification on the patients medical history and concerns. Active listening by the nurse also makes the patient develop an attitude of trusting the nurse (Hugman, 2009).

The active listening enables the nurse to identify the patients problem. This factor is made easier by the trust aurier of trust that is developed between the nurse and the patient. The trust also makes it possible for the patient to identify with the nurse and trust the entire treatment system (Hugman, 2009).

Exploitation: The patient learns to exploit the client-nurse relationship that has been developed to make enquiries into vital medical processes and requirements. The nurse and her team also exploit the relationship to deliver medical objectives effectively (Hugman, 2009).

Resolution: The health status of a patient is restored as they can actively participate in the medical system (Hugman, 2009).Peplaus theory deduces that parties in a medical setup should offer assistance to each other by exploiting the avenues presented by communication.

Dyadic Interpersonal Communication

The term refers to the engagement of an encoder and a decoder in the communication process (Tamparo & Lindh, 2008). In this context, interpretation of data is dependable on the decoders ability to comprehend the encrypted data. Ability of either party to understand each other is largely dependable on the clarity of the information (Hugman, 2009).

Experiential Communication

The process of exchanging information is described in the theory as a transaction. Transmission of data is achieved through the use of diverse clues inclusive of symbols and clues. Thus, communication involves the following steps:

The sender clearly stating the message (Tamparo & Lindh, 2008).

Reception of both verbal and non-verbal behavior by the receiver.

The sender inquiring for feedback

The sender being receptive to the feedback and willing to give more clarity to the information in cases of misunderstanding (Tamparo and Lindh, 2008).

Crisis Communication

In a healthcare environment that does not bear the great urgency, a professional is advised to delay in building a relationship with a patient. As such, the relationship is strengthened and exhibits the characteristic of a setup with the ability and agility to effectively deliver upon its tasks. However, a critical situation offers limited or no time to establish such a relationship as many a times, a patients ability to effectively communicate is hampered. Considering that communication is very significant in establishing a good medical procedure, it is very important that the medical staff device alternate mechanisms of achieving a great impact (Van, 2009).Critical situations, mass trauma, and disasters always have a negative effect on the health system, rendering it incapable of effectively communication and making organized reactions. The situations always have the following effect on a system:The first is a breakdown of operational response and the second is an inspiration of anger, confusion, and negative reaction.The factors are facilitated by the unbearable sights of extreme human suffering and pain. The natural attachment/link, that humans share, make them significantly sympathetic. As such, the medical staff suffer from the emotional breakdown and lose the ability to focus and effectively deliver. The overwhelming nature of the disasters also breaks the capacity and agility of any medical staff. Dealing with numerous urgent situations is challenging and reduces the competence of a medical staff.The high number of death casualties and extensive injuries that might result from a disaster can also make the medical staff develop the feeling of incompetency and inability to deal with the situation. As such, their frustrations impair their ability to communicate and take up responsibilities. Such situations have great psychological impacts and derail the entire healthcare communication and its processes.With the urgent situations comes the need to modify the communication system as the professionals assume an entirely different approach to communication. The professionals are advised to start and keep the conversations off the medical topics and take their concentration of the disasters. Making a patient think about other factors in a critical moment eases some of the sufferings. The professionals should also encourage the patients to ensure that they keep the hope of surviving the crisis. Inspirational stories to instill the belief in the possibility to make a breakthrough should be told to the patient. For instance, concocting a story or telling an actual story about a critical moment somewhere that was successfully solved would make a patient have hope.To improve communication between staffs, mechanisms that include the use of guides can be applied to make up for a limited time to communicate the measures to the crisis. Guides would present the workers with a quick overview of the nature of the crisis and make it possible to present solutions, thus avoiding a communication breakdown.The communication factors that are employed in urgent situations make for the limited communication opportunity and urgent moments that cannot allow for usual recommended conversations. They serve to keep the composure of all parties involved while improving their focus and ability to solve the dilemma effectively (Tamparo & Lindh, 2008).

Ways of Reducing Stress During CrisisDefining and Evaluating Roles

In a critical mix-up, the human desire to assist may interfere with the ability of a clinical set up to effectively deliver and solve the crisis. The panicky situations also take from the entire team the ability to focus. As such, defining roles for the entire team and presents solutions and improves focus. The professionals hence only serve to meet their responsibilities. Defining duties makes sure that there are no cases of negligence. Caution is also taken to ensure that necessary changes are made in the team responsibilities with changing situations (Van, 2009). Such modifications should present the team with the ability effectively adapt to the changes and maintain suitable care. Organizing the team in such manner would maintain order and keep stress within the professional team at manageable levels. It also increases efficiency and instills confidence on the team at their ability to effectively handle the situation. Confidence is relevant in calming the staff and keeping their focus as stress levels are reduced.

Worker Rotation

Rotation of workers from high-stress level areas to low stress level areas should be employed to manage the stress levels in a staff. Maintaining workers at extreme levels breaks their ability to focus and renders them useless. In some cases, it results in psychological problems. However, when workers are tuned to the idea of rotation, it presents them with breaks and keeps their stress levels at manageable levels. In most instances, workers are psychologically prepared to re-encounter stressful situations after breaks as it accords them with the time to determine and reflect on their desire and ability to help. Worker rotation also balances the level of workload to the staffs. Rotation should also include a flexible schedule for workers who have suffered direct effect from the disaster/crisis. Exhibiting such level of understanding makes it possible for affected workers to keep stress at manageable level and increases their focus on work. A well rotated and balanced system ensures team stability and efficiency.

Reducing the Noise Levels

In crisis and disasters, screams and noises/blasts could distract a professional. Focus can be affected and replaced by desperation and fear as they react to the environmental conditions. The ability to condition a professional environment increases their ability to focus and deliver. Noise can fill their head and makes the whole situation more stressful and unbearable. The environment can be conditioned through the provision of equipment like earplugs, noise mufflers, and telephone headsets. Reduced noise levels inspire the concentration and the ability to handle a situation effectively without considering other cases.

Resolving Potential Communication Challenges

Communication breakdown in a medical setup is always so fatal and renders the staff incapable of meeting its objectives. For instance, a doctor failing to communicate stipulated care to a patient might jeopardize the health of the patient. Communication is important not just in keeping the daily processes going, but inspiring growth in the medical sector. To limit the chances of a breakdown in the communication system, implementation of the following measures should be conducted.

Implementation of Workplace Guides

Rush situations may call for urgent reactions from the medical personnel, thus according them with limited opportunity to examine and communicate the nature of the crisis (Bryan, 2009). Presenting workplace guidelines to workers would hence enable them to be informed of the responsibilities and expectations that they should be meeting the crisis. The guidelines should also set the protocol and manner of handling the varied situations. As such, all the workers will be equipped with the information that would otherwise cause a communication breakdown. Additionally, a clinical set up would be required to implement workplace lectures and peer education significantly to reduce the probability of a communication breakdown occurrence. Such activity increases the preparedness of a staff and the ability to implement support programs that make up for communication breakdowns.

Community Skits

The exhibition of skits that project the reaction of a community to the problem, or the communitys concern and measures that should be taken reduces the chances of a communication breakdown (Tamparo & Lindh, 2008). Comprehending the activities in a skit and relating them to real life situations would be a lot easier for a community with communication or stigma problems. Skits can also be used to assist medical personnel to comprehend the attitude of a community in relation to a particular problem. The ability to understand the community in question would enable a professional to develop an efficient mechanism for achieving effective communication and other medical procedures. Childrens attention to health problems can be easily drawn through the use of theatre as children are not inclined to understand the processes of healthcare communication. Theatre and skits should adopt a lemans language to ensure that the community effectively understands the principles or projections of the communication.Staff Discussions

Holding staff discussions is the other significant measure. The meeting examines the shortfalls that cripple the communication path as it presents all staff members with the opportunity to express their concerns. It also offers the podiums for the staff to share professional opinion on a matter. The meeting can also be used to psych the staff members to ensure that their confidence and concentration levels are maintained at the peak. The team spirit that stems from a staff meeting would inspire focus and keep stress levels at a minimum and as such reduce the chances of a communication breakdown.

Conclusion

According to Bryan (2009), healthcare communication plays the most significant role in ensuring that the entire medical process is sufficiently carried out. The system fosters a relationship with the staff member and even between staffs and patients. Good communication skills can make it possible for the establishment of a casual relationship that is very significant in ensuring that the good medical stories are collected for effective treatment. The field of healthcare communication also determines the clinical capacity of a nation to handle critical situations effectively. However, for effective work during crisis management, it is advisable that the medical systems train and prepare for critical situations to avoid disruption and lack of focus.A great communication system would establish a great work environment and is beneficial to both the patients and professionals in varied dimensions. Presenting medical solutions is only possible when the communication system has stability hence there is the relevance in keeping a system well informed and with measures to make up for disruptive situations. There should also be measures to reduce stress levels to the medical staff to increase their concentration.

References

Bryan, K. (2009). Communication in healthcare. Oxford [England: Peter Lang.

Hugman, B. (2009). Healthcare communication. London: Pharmaceutical Press.

Nemeth, C. P. (2008). Improving healthcare team communication: Building on lessons from aviation and aerospace. Aldershot, England: Ashgate.

Tamparo, C. D., & Lindh, W. Q. (2008). Therapeutic communications for health care. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning.

Van, S. G. M. (2009). Communication skills for the health care professional: Concepts, practice, and evidence. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

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