Health Care Role in Communication - Case Study Example

Health Care Role in Communication ID Lecturer Introduction It is a very upsetting situation here since Lena was not expecting to be in the emergency room of the hospital yet she was there when she woke up. She was angry with Susie because she had brought her to the hospital even though she did not quite like the look of the hospital. Since she had fainted in the class, it was the moral duty of her friend and the school authorities to take her to school, for which they cannot be blamed at all. This is in line with any civilized society of the world where the sick individuals need to be taken to the nearest medical facility so that they could be healed and their lives are saved at the earliest. The role of the health care communication is of essence and one must understand its due place so that sanity could prevail as far as health domains are concerned. One must realize that health care regimes have to be amended within any society of the world, and the manner in which communication comes about to meet success is very significant within the related discussions. This paper will discuss the basis of communication problems that hinder the case scenario of Lena and how better sense could have prevailed which must have been employed for the betterment of one and all. Patient Scenario One should understand that Lena’s position is a difficult one. She does not know what she is doing at the hospital yet no one is willing to explain to her the exact reason why she has been brought to the hospital. Now when she wants to know the reason, both the medical assistant and the doctor are being very unhelpful. She is adamant to know what she has gone through yet at the same time she is receiving absolutely nothing from the people who are present within the hospital. One can understand what kind of trouble Lena is going through because she has essentially no idea about her treatment and the rudeness shown by the medical assistant and later on by the doctor is not proper. In fact this lack of attention to her treatment regimes is something which does not go down well with the field of medical science, and the two individuals are blamed for the right reasons. When it comes to health communication, some major components that are involved here include the lack of giving proper information about the problem that Lena is going through, as well as being disrespectful towards her which is an absolutely immoral act on the part of the hospital authorities, and more specifically by the medical assistant and the doctor. These two aspects of health communication form the very basis of success between the hospital fraternity and Lena, who is a patient requiring assistance from the former. One shall believe that the promotion of collaborative communication amongst all of them is not at all recognizable since no one is ready to attend to one another. The patient is unwilling to know what her problem is and the doctor is losing his cool which is not something that goes down well with the promotion of collaborative communication, be it in the form of words, emotions, gestures or through the whole environment. Key Player Perspectives The patient does not know what to do. Susie has been taken for granted in the whole situation. The medical assistant is irritated for some odd reason and the doctor is doing his job yet loses his cool very quickly. All of these individuals have been facing communication problems whilst being a part of the health care domains. There is a need to understand that Lena is not really sure as to what her reaction should be. She is sold on the fact that she should not be at the emergency room within the hospital in the first place. This is the reason why she has turned completely negative and is not responding to anyone within the emergency room at the hospital. Susie is being nice to Lena but she is getting nothing in return. She has brought Lena to the emergency room even though she is young and it is pretty hard on her part to do all that for Lena. Lena does not understand the whole equation and gets angry on Susie, which is apparently a case of bad temper and mood by Lena (Hornik 2002). Therefore it would be right to say that Susie is being treated in a very unfair manner. The patient socialization and characteristics have got a huge role within the whole debate since her perspective is derived from the way she has been viewing people around her. She is simply not happy with anyone, be it Susie, her friend, or the medical assistant and the doctor at the emergency room within the medical facility. She does not appreciate the fact that she is the patient and hence the reason that socialization is not at all happening. This is one of the reasons behind her non-socialization and her characteristics are coming out in a very negative way. The patient’s illness is such that she must be told what she is doing within the medical facility and that too in the emergency room of the hospital, as the last time she was in the class and fainted on the floor. Hence she has no knowledge of the kind of illness she is going through and thus it is the duty of the hospital staff to tell her what she had to do to get back on her feet at the very earliest. As for her personal identity, she is a student at the school who is finding it hard to digest the fact that she is in the hospital. She expected Susie to know that she did not like a hospital and Susie should have known twice before bringing her to the emergency room of the hospital. Therefore the personal identity issues are very apparent within her personality which must be understood. It is true that the patient hails from a marginalized population and this is very apparent since she does not quite know the tangents that work within the United States. A lot of emphasis is paid upon health care domains within US and it is only natural to feel concerned about Lena’s health by the medical assistant and the doctor in the hospital. Yet the manner in which the medical assistant and the doctor have spoken to her suggest that there is something wrong with their collaborative communication realms. What this means is that there is something racially focused towards her community since Lena is predominantly not a US citizen, and has roots from Southeast Asia. One shall believe that Lena has realized that since she is from the minority clan within the US, the doctors would not take her seriously. As she does not quite like the look of a hospital, this adds up to the quandary by a fair stretch (Thompson 2003). There is a good amount of confusion between the medical fraternity at the hospital and Lena, as the latter is not willing to cooperate with the medical assistant and the doctor at all. However the medical assistant and the doctor have no right whatsoever to feel bad about the whole situation, since they are paid to do their job and not to demoralize the patients even further. The fact that they are on the sick bed makes them feel awry, add to that the irony of bearing nagging medical fraternity is all the more difficult for Lena. Hence the impact on the patient is very apparent within the scenario since she is feeling that if she remains desolate, she might just get a chance to run away from the medical facility and be back at what she is good at – living her life to the maximum. However what really surprises Lena is that how was she able to make it to the hospital and more than that what had happened to her in the first place? These are questions that the doctor was willing to tell to Lena but since she has gone into a mode of being quite and disrespectful to just about everyone, it was harder for her to digest the fact that she was going to reply to anyone. There is a conflict of interest scenario that has cropped up here, specifically for Lena as she tries to understand the different nuances which have engulfed her real self. She wants to break free from the shackles of the hospital yet she is not ready to find out the exact reason of coming to the hospital and more than that determining how and when she will be released from the emergency room and/or the hospital itself. If only she could have shown some more patience, this issue would not have crept up so much, and a good solution would have been found in an easy manner. This would have been the best solution to the whole question at hand as far as Lena and the medical fraternity is concerned. The perspective of the caregiver and the medical assistant in this situation is of utmost importance. Since both are doing their job of attending to the patient (Lena), they must know that a patient requires understanding from them. This was not the case with the caregiver and the medical assistant; as they were adamant that they had to do their job and that their time was more important to them than anything else. One shall believe that the attitude and the harshness with which Lena was subjected to, the caregiver and the medical assistant were not doing their jobs in a proper manner. If only they could have been a little more considerate, this matter could have been resolved in an amicable way, but sadly this did not happen at all. As far as the socialization process of the caregiver and the medical assistant is concerned, even though they hail from the US, they should have comprehended the fact that the Southeast Asian girl, Lena, must know that the caregiver and the medical assistant are there to give her the best. As Lena was going through a lean patch, it is only natural to feel bad about the whole episode. Plus the fact that Lena is a student at college, she is only young enough to understand certain things, which the caregiver and the medical assistant know inside out. The roles of the medical assistant and the doctor are more clearly defined to them as they are the professionals in the whole scenario. On the other hand, Lena is experiencing such a trauma for the first time, more so because she does not like the look of a hospital and also that she was not expecting to be there at that time. There seems to be a burn-out factor apparent within the caregiver and the medical assistant’s work domains. Either they have attended too many shifts or they are too busy to bother about anything at all. This makes their work processes all the more difficult to swallow. Communication Implications The factors that have played a vital part within the poor communication regimes include improper adherence to medical standards and hospital rules. Also Lena has been unable to come to terms with her stay at the hospital which is not surprising at all, since it is her first time there. The fact that she hails from Southeast Asia and the doctor and the medical assistant are predominantly from the United States raises even more questions related with communication and interaction amongst all of them. The differing perspectives between the patient and the medical fraternity suggest that there are many wrongs involved here (Berry 2007). However no effort is being made to resolve the dispute at hand, rather the doctor as well as the medical assistant is making things worse for Lena, who is indeed at the receiving end of this entire problem. The cultural views are very important to consider here before understanding as to who is wrong and who makes the vital difference amongst communication regimes. Also biomedical and biopsychosocial perspectives are hard to digest because these pinpoint the basis of losses on the part of the caregiver and the medical assistant. They really do not know what they are up to and how they can resolve the matter amicably, which is unfortunate to state the least. Perhaps each one of them has lost focus within their job regimes. They have overstepped the line of decency as far as their medical work is concerned. They need to be told clearly that there are definitive boundaries within their work domains, and these shall be complied with no matter how hard or difficult the situation turns out to be. Communication Resolution As far as the communication resolution is concerned, each one of the key players has to understand what their exact roles are. There should be more open communication and a room to understand each other. Perhaps Lena has to open up as well and tell her side of the story to the caregiver and the medical assistant because she is the one who has to get back on her feet and not the other way round. More than anything else, she has to get away from the hospital because she does not like the place. Also the doctor and the medical assistant must know that they are dealing with a patient here and thus it is important to know where she is coming from and what kind of sickness she is dealing with. Since they are professionals, they must know their jobs well. It is sad that they do not know how to cope up with a patient, and that they should have a proper tone when talking with Lena. Also medical reforms are very important within this context since the hospital is losing out on this front in a magnanimous way. The environment within the hospital must change so that the patients could feel relief there rather than having other thoughts. Also they must be soothed with respect to their illnesses because this is indeed the role of the caregiver and the medical assistant at the end of the day. The overall office culture needs to be improved because there is a lot of room for doing so. Conclusion There are a number of lessons that can be learned from the whole situation that Lena has been through. The role of the caregiver and the medical assistant is surprising yet can be re-worked with at the earliest so that patients like Lena could take a sigh of relief. There is also a definitive role for bringing about a change in the attitudes of the people and having medical reforms inside the medical facility as these are much needed. All said and done, a better perspective by everyone is needed to bring about sanity within the related ranks. References Berry, D (2007). Health Communication: Theory and Practice. Open University Press Hornik, R (2002). Public Health Communication: Evidence for Behavior Change. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Thompson, T (2003). Handbook of Health Communication. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Read More