Effective Communication in Radiotherapy - Essay Example

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN RADIOTHERAPY By + EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN RADIOTHERAPY Effective communication in radiotherapy is a valuable asset to an effective cancer care system. It helps improve patients well-being and the quality of their life and this result in a proper prognosis (CLIC, 2010). This paper is therefore going to talk about the importance of effective communication between a patient who is suffering from cancer and the therapeutic radiographers. It will also discuss the common communication barriers that can be experienced and how to eliminate them. There are four main components necessary for effective patient communication. These are expressing of concerns, checks and understanding, asking of questions and presentation of detailed information (Wilmet, 2007). For all these components to be achieved, the patient needs to put in extra effort and to fully cooperate. The quality of the communication provided in cancer care improves when the radiotherapists tend to the individual cancer patient needs. Patients can clearly contribute to this individualized care by expressing their preferences as well as needs clearly (Webster, 2000). Effective communication in the radiotherapy setting enables the collating of information hence making audit virtually possible and enhancing onward flow of data to cancer registries. It helps the radiotherapy staff to uphold teamwork. This will enhance a detailed discussion between physicians, surgeons, radiologists, pathologists and oncologists about the clinical factors that are relevant to decision making. This will therefore benefit patients in the treatment of radiotherapy due to their high considerations. The manner in which health care professionals do communicate with patients through the application of health and social care services highly affects the way in which the patients do experience the treatment. Good communication facilitates earlier diagnosis of cancer ailments. Early diagnosis can lead to better and efficient treatment of the cancer in the patient. This will ultimately help to avoid deaths that are usually occasioned by late diagnosis of the cancer ailment in patients. It reduces emergency admissions of cancer patients. It also improves self-management of radiotherapists on the patient. Effective communication is also important in reducing inequalities in access and provision of care among the cancer patients (Royal College of Radiologists, 2008). It enables the patients to return to their normal life activities as soon as possible after the diagnosis of the treatment of cancer. It also encourages patients and radiotherapists to exercise an informed choice as pertaining to the cancer epidemic. It enables the cancer patients to share their fears with radiotherapists and their families who in return encourage them and give them hope in life. It enables the creation of a local mechanism so as to keep track the progress of the patients who may require radiotherapy at a later stage in their life. This enables timely booking of radiotherapy by the cancer patients. Effective communication results in a more efficient use of time that contributes to the optimization of resources. It also promotes good working relationships between staff members and the patients hence leading to job satisfaction and enhancement in the quality of life. Effective communication results to an improved understanding and awareness of the characteristics of patients through reflective practice (National Cancer Action Team, 2010). It enhances the assessment of patient and offering of information and the support that the patient needs so as to cope up with their condition. It also helps radiographers to take into account the patients’ preferences, views and circumstances whenever possible. This helps them in the consideration of their advice on the care that is the most appropriate for the patient’s condition. This also helps radiographers in the drafting of recommendations to the patient. Poor communication in cancer care is prevalent and it exerts a significant burden. It can lead to the erosion of trust as well as the misunderstanding of the disease on the part of the cancer patient. It can also lead to malpractice suits on the part of the health care professional. Poor communication can have a number of negative effects on the cancer patient as well as on the treatment process. It negatively affects the nature and quality of information transmitted between the cancer patient and the health care professional. It also leads to a slow outcome and enactment of decisions in the cancer care system. Poor communication is equally responsible for the psychosocial distress that the cancer patients undergo. It is also argued that poor communication exerts both economic and social costs that are potentially huge and harmful. Unnecessary treatment can also be occasioned to the cancer patient if there is poor communication (Thorne, Bultz & Baile, 2005). Poor communication causes misunderstandings, errors and incorrect assumptions. All these misunderstandings can leave the patient undergoing radiotherapy while very confused and distorted. This will ultimately lead to a decline in the patient’s recovery rates. This will ultimately lead to a decline in the patient’s recovery rates. There is an increasing amount of evidence indicating that ineffective healthcare professional-patient communication leads to malpractice, non-adherence, patient and clinician dissatisfaction and poor health outcomes (CLIC, 2010). Effective communication can be achieved when it is consistent with the best practice to examine that poor communication constitutes an imperative that is not only moral but also economic in the cancer care delivery system. There should be advancement in the economic analysis of the negative impacts of poor communication in cancer care so as to enhance the chances of effective communication (Thorne, Bultz & Baile, 2005). Poor communication should not be ignored as a priority issue in the cancer care delivery as this will be both costly and misguided. Communication within oncology is a fundamental clinical expertise but one in which few oncologists or professional cancer nurses have established much proper training. Insufficient communication may cause much agony for cancer patients and their families, who frequently want substantially more information than is usually delivered. Many of the cancer patients leave consultations uncertain about the diagnosis and prognosis, blurred about the administration plan and unclear about the true beneficial intent of treatment. Additionally, communication difficulties may obstruct the enrollment of patients to clinical trials, postponing the start of effective novel treatments into clinics. Poor communication between specialists and departments can also cause misunderstanding and a loss of assurance amongst the team. Oncologists themselves admit that inadequate training in communication and organization skills is a chief factor underwriting to their own stress, absence of job gratification and emotional burnout. There are various barriers to effective communication among patients and radiotherapists. The barriers would be related to the patient’s attributes, the health care professional’s attributes or to external factors. These attributes are like emotions, skills, values, beliefs and needs of both patient and health care professionals (National Cancer Patient Experience Survey, 2012). The barriers related to the patient’s attributes are the emotions experienced before and during the consultations. They involve uncertainty, stress, desperation, sadness and anxiety. It would also involve the patient’s lack of specific knowledge about the disease they are suffering from as well as lack of communication skills and experience with the consultations. The patient would also forget to ask questions. They would equally have difficulties in processing the information that they have discussed. The patient would also not know how to request the health care professionals to clarify their statements. Barriers would also arise as a result of the patient feeling that he or she is dependent on the health care professional or that a health care professional would not appreciate a cancer patient that actively participates in the consultations. The barriers would also present themselves in instances of the cancer patients having negative attitudes about expressing their concerns and views to the health care professionals. The cancer patient would be afraid of receiving negative comments or consequences from the relevant health care professionals (Wilkinson, Moore & Fellowes, 2004). The patients would also be having dysfunctional beliefs about their ability to remember the questions that they have been asked by the health care professionals during the consultations. The barriers to the effective communication would also be specific to the cancer patients. They might be unique to the type of cancer that the patient is suffering from. This would be as a result of the specific disease issues that patients have to deal with, for example, psychological problems, physiologic alterations and complications that are associated with the treatment (National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence, 2008). The patients would also be hindered by unwarranted and misinformed beliefs that minute complaints would not be important to discuss with their health care professional. Some patients would also be informed that they should not interfere in the communications. The health care professionals might also be hindered in their communication in a number of ways. They would be keeping the information too general instead of being specific to the patient needs. Some of the health care professionals would also not be responding to the patient’s notice of vague physical or psychological complaints. Others may also not apologize when they make mistakes and would blatantly be delivering bad news to the cancer patients (Bruinessen, Weel, Gouw, Zulstra, Albada & Dulmen, 2013). These will make the patients to have a negative attitude towards them and hence hinder the required efficiency in the consultations and communications. Use of technical and non-psychosocial communication style would also hinder the patients as it will be very difficult for them to understand the technical terms used. If the health care professional is haughty or hasty in their communication, this would hinder proper communication with the patient. The barriers related to external factors would present themselves in form of time pressure. This would be in situations where the patients have to wait before consultations with the health care professionals. This is likely to evoke anxiety and stress. The time taken during a consultation between the patient and the health care professional and the time taken before the results of the medical results are achieved by the patient is likely to evoke anxiety, frustrations and related emotions. These barriers to effective communication between a cancer patient and a health care professional can however be overcome. There needs to be training programs and seminars for the health care professionals in order to improve some areas of their communication skills when they are dealing with the cancer patients (Wilkinson, Moore & Fellowes, 2004). The health care professional should also educate the cancer patient on the need for a feedback. Both of them also need to know that the communication between them should be a two-way. This will help in reinforcing the dialogue as well as stimulating and reinforcing it. Feedback is of material importance in improving the health of the cancer patient and it ought to be done in an effective manner so as to achieve the good health desired. Arrogance whereby either the cancer patient or the health care professional believes that they know everything should be avoided. None of them should assume that they possess the correct information which ought to prevail over the other’s information. The cancer patient’s priorities and assumptions may also differ from those of the health care professional. It is therefore of paramount importance that none of them assumes that they will get logical and rational responses from the other. Emotional barriers in the cancer patient should also be addressed and if noticed by the health care professional, he or she should not be tempted to think that the cancer patient is hypocritical. This will help to improve the communication between them. In cases of language barriers, the health care professional should be encouraged to use words that are familiar to the cancer patient. He or she should also employ the use of concrete rather than abstract words as well as using short sentences that can be easily understood by the cancer patient. If there are language barriers due to the deafness or blindness of the cancer patient, then the health care professional and the hospital need to put in place measures to address this problem. This would be by the use of braille or by employing an expert who can perform sign language to the deaf cancer patient. Lastly, the health care professionals should be encouraged to show empathy to the cancer patient. They should try and put themselves in the personality of the cancer patient in order for them to increase their potential for effective communication. From the foregoing analysis, it can be properly argued that effective communication is quite paramount among the cancer patients and their relevant health professionals. The communication used affects the manner in which the cancer is diagnosed and treated. It is therefore important for them to device proper methods and modes of communication so as to achieve their various objectives. Word Count 2102 words References and Bibliography Bruinessen, I.R.V., Weel, E.M.V., Gouw, H., Zulstra, J.M., Albada, A. & Dulmen, S.V., (2013). Barriers and facilitators to effective communication experienced by patients with malignant lymphoma at all stages after diagnosis. Netherlands: Nivel Certified Post Print CLIC, (2010). More than my illness: Delivering quality care for young people with cancer. London: CLIC Sargent. National Cancer Action Team, (2010). The characteristics of an effective Multidisciplinary Team (MDT). National Cancer Patient Experience Survey, (2012). Improving cancer patient experience. England & Wales: Macmillan Cancer Support. National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence, (2005). Guidance for cancer services: Improving outcomes in children and young people with cancer. London Royal College of Radiologists, (2008). Implementing in vivo dosimetry. London: British Institute of Radiology. Thorne, S.E., Bultz, B.D & Baile, W.F. (2005). Is there a cost to poor communication in cancer care? A critical review of the literature. Wiley InterScience. Webster, A. (2000). The facilitating role of the play specialist. Padeatric Nursing, issue 12, p.24-27 Wilmet, M. (2007). The specialist play specialist. Padeatric Nursing, issue 19, p.33 Wilkinson, S., Moore, P. & Fellowes, D. (2004). Communication skills training for health care professionals, their families and/or carers. US National Library of Medicine. Read More