Personal and Professional Health Care Communication - Essay Example

Personal and Professional Health Care Communication Introduction Communication in health care is very essential and involves several aspects like communication between patient and health professionals, communication between health professionals and communication with family members of the patient. Nurses, being the core components of the health care system have many roles in the care of a patients and communication skills are very necessary for their effective functioning. Thus, it is obvious that ineffective communication is a potential barrier in health care (Chant et al, 2008) and several nursing theorists and researchers have identified the need to incorporate training and education of communication skills in nursing education. In this essay, the importance of personal and professional health care communication wil be discussed through review of appropriate literature. Health care communication Communication "is a reciprocal process of sending and receiving messages using a mixture of verbal and nonverbal communication skills" (Arnold and Boggs, 1995; cited in McCabe, 2004). In nurse-patient relationship, communication "involves more than the transmission of information; it also involves transmitting feelings, recognizing these feelings and letting the patient know that their feelings have been recognized" (Sheppard, 1993; cited in McCabe, 2004). The communication patterns that occur in health care setting are information seeking, information-giving, partnership building, negative talk and social conversation (Davis et al, 2008). Need for effective communication Nurses are the backbone of any health care setting and play an important role in the health promotion of an individual due to their direct contact and proximity with the patients. The relationship between a nurse and a patient is of therapeutic nature and based on the provision of care, guidance and assistance of the patient (Neal, 2007). It is shaped mainly by four concepts namely, trust, power, intimacy and respect (Neal, 2007). Trust is largely based on the assumption of the fact that the nurses are skilled and knowledgeable and will exercise these aspects in dealing with the patient. Trust between nurse and patient can be established by effective communication. Professionally, nurses interact with a variety of people for various reasons and contexts. This requires effective interpersonal communication and good relation with other people. According to Rask and Brunt (2007), there are six categories of nurse-patient interactions which are: building and sustaining relationships, supportive/encouraging interactions, social skills training, reality orientation, reflective interactions and practical skills training. Nursing is actually a social activity demanding the professionals to be socially competent. Thus interpersonal skills of communicating and relating are pivotal for the development of social competence of the nurses. Nurses need to spend time and listen to the needs of the patient and understand the experience of the patient. The central aim should be to initiate supportive interpersonal communication in order to understand the perceptions and needs of the others (Reynolds and Scott, 1999; qtd. in Stein- Parbury, 2005). Communication and listening has a direct impact on the health care of the patient. Effective communication enhances the quality of care provided to the patient, enhances the therapeutic benefits of treatment, improves emotional health, increases functional status and changes physiological measures towards positive side. Effective communication also increases compliance to treatment, adherence to prescribed interventions, enhances recall of information, increases patient satisfaction (Davis et al, 2008). Therapeutic communication skills are critical for promotion of healing and also for the promotion of both physical and emotion well-being of the patients, who are taunted by discomfort, pain, distress and anxiety (Jasmine, 2009). Communication issues are relevant to health care ethics, especially while delivering bad news and end-of-life decisions (Davis et al, 2008). Nurses and other health care professionals must be sensitive and attentive to the messages conveyed by not only the patients, but also their parents, friends, surrogates, families and relatives. Not adhering to medical ethics and principles of communication can result in ethical conflicts (Davis et al, 2008). One of the core clinical skills in oncology is good communication. Improper communication makes the patient confused about the diagnosis, unsure about the need for further treatment and uncertainty of the therapeutic intention of care and management (Fallowfield and Jenkins, 1999). Insensitive approach of communicating bad news increases the distress of the patient and his or her relatives. It also impacts the ability of the patient to adjust and adapt (Fallowfield and Jenkins, 2004). Communication between health professionals and patients has multiple dimensions like content of dialogue, affective component and behaviors other than verbal. Communicating bad news appropriately demands proper knowledge of the disease and its prognosis and good communication skills (Back and Arnold, 2006). Improper manner of delivery of bad news not only leads to uneasiness but also poor psychological adjustment for the patients and their close relatives (Mager and Andrykowski, 2002). Ineffective communication In the health care team, the position of nurses is such that they not only provided bed-side care, but also interact with other team members (Propp et al, 2010). Lack of effective communication which is characterized by inability of the nurse to either initiate, or maintain, dialogue at workplace that meet the needs of the group or interacting persons, is one of causes stress at workplace (Hanlon, 2002). Stress can make the nurses withdrawn, irritable, moody and become absent from work. This can ultimately lead to job dissatisfaction and burnout (Hanlon, 2002). There are several factors which contribute to ineffective communication like personal perceptions, attitudes, values and beliefs, job dissatisfaction, stress at home, religious clashes with respect to treatment, fear of contracting infections and feelings of guilt and uncertainty (Hanlon, 2002). Other factors include societal factors like work overload, floating policies, understaffing, inexperienced interns, inadequate facilities, unpredictable work hours and inter-staff issues (Hanlon, 2002). Workplace practice and policy are fundamental barriers to effective communication (Chand et al, 2002; cited in Jasmine, 2009). External distractions are another important cause of ineffective communication and these can be minimized by drawing curtains (Jasmine, 2009). Ineffective communication can also occur due to problems in communication skills teaching like lack of standards of teaching, deficiency of teaching skills in certain vulnerable patient-nurse interaction scenarios like care of children, care of elderly persons, delivery of bad news, etc., emphasis on mechanistic communication rather than relational communication, shortages of training in certain skills like telephone communication, poor evaluation and reflection of the outcomes of communication skills training, inappropriate adaptation on the part of educators to the academic abilities of students, increase in theory-practice gap, lack of accommodation of creative and independent thinking, lack of appropriate environment to impart effective skills, biomedical dominance and hierarchal nature of healthcare (Chant et al, 2002). Communication skills theorise Communication is critical in health care because delivery of health occurs in collaboration with various members of the health care team like physicians, nurses, allied health professionals and assistant personnels. For quality patient care, decision making and combination of the skills of various health care team members must be done and this can happen only through effective communication (Propp et al, 2010). Due to increased recognition of the importance of communication in health care setting, communication skills training has become the core component of several nurse education programs. Effective communication can be enhanced by appropriate education and training of the nurses. The programs must include identification of causes of ineffective communication, techniques of effective communication, differentiation between effective and non-effective means of communication and appropriate case presentations. Certain components of ineffective communication like semantics, nonverbal signs, poor memory and personal bias can be trained through video programs and group discussions (Hanlon, 2002). Conclusion Effective communication is the most important skill in health care delivery. Health professionals, especially nurse need to communicate effectively to allow collaboration between team members, to deliver quality care, to allow proper dissipation of information, to enhance compliance to treatments, to prevent ethical problems and to decrease stress and burnout. Effective communication is possible through appropriate training and education, reflection, proper workplace atmosphere and policies and having the right attitude towards duty and performance. References Back, A.L., and Arnold, R.M. (2006). Discussing prognosis: "How much do you want to know?" Talking to patients who are prepared for explicit information. J Clin Oncol., 24(25), 4209-4213. Chant, S., Jenkinson, T., Randle, J., and Russell, G. (2002). Communication skills: some problems in nursing education and practice. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 11, 12-21. Davis, J., Foley, A., Crigger, N., and Branningan, M.C. (2008). Healthcare and Listening: A Relationship for Caring. The International Journal of Listening, 22, 168- 175. Fallowfield, L., and Jenkins, V. (2004). Communicating sad, bad and difficult news in medicine. The Lancet, 363 (9405), 312- 319. Hanlon, J.M. (2002). Teaching Effective Communication Skills. Nursing Management, 27(4), 462- 465. Jasmine, T.J.X. (2009). The use of effective therapeutic communication skills in nursing practice. Singapore Nursing Journal, 36(1), 35- 40. Mager, W.M., and Andrykowski, M.A. (2002). Communication in the cancer bad news consultation: patient perceptions and psychological adjustment. Psychooncology, 11(1), 35-46. McCabe, C. (2004). Nurse-patient communication: an exploration of patients experience. 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