Communications Methods in Nursing Home - Research Paper Example

Communication Methods in a Nursing Home The Choice of Communication Method by a Nursing Home Administrator As an administrator of nursing home, one must try to be effective on how to convey sensitive information to the patient. the course of the new policies implemented and patient have to be displaced, poses a challenging situation to the administrator considering that some of the patients are illiterate hence it is difficult to convince them, some are at critical condition that does not need any disruption and others have no local families or relatives where they can move to. Moreover, patient may not be accommodated to other nursing since they are already full while others are unaffordable for low-income earners patients. Therefore, as an administrator of the nursing home, he or she has the responsibility to arrange how these patients are going to enjoy their rights to medication. Therefore, the administrator has to choose communication method that will be effective to every resident either traditional, electronic or social media method. a) Traditional Communication Method Ancient communication involves using brochures, pamphlets and booklets that are intended to reach audience randomly. However, it is expensive to incur the cost of printing health information in these materials when a few copies are required. Therefore, to be cost effective, many copies of these materials are printed at once.Traditional communication is associated with some advantages such as: convey a precise message because developers of the information seek to produce materials and programs that would meet the need of a large number of potential users, different subgroups in the society were able to access different version of material from the writers. On the other hand, traditional communication hasits disadvantages such that, it is very cumbersome to print a large number of information materials for a large population since the writers writes distinctive information for different population, additionally; if the information to be printed involve a few copies, it is very expensive. Lastly, to customize on population outreach of information by the administrator to different individuals will bedependent upon quick processing of large volume of data hence residents can misunderstand information leading to ineffectiveness of the administrator to the residents. Electronics Communication Method Emergence of tailored health communication was an indication of growing marketing approach to modify communication in nursing home formedby uniting various innovations at once. Tailored health communication (THC) refers to bringing together information and performance change plans expected to get to a particular person founded on exceptional to the person according to result he or she expects resulting from individual valuation. The purpose of adopting electronic means of communication in nursing home was to improve the performance of health care services to the public. It was also important to avoid problems that could arise from communicating with patients using the traditional communication such as delay and errors committed during printing. On the other hand, use of tailoring method of health communication was developed to deal with a wide range of health problems hence promote health services in terms of prevention and early detection of severe ailments such as cancer, a function that never was fulfilled by the use of traditional health communication. (Kreutzer, 2006).Therefore, electronic health communication methods involve: i. Telephone care Telephone have been used for almost a century now to communicate between two or more parties in terms of making calls, short messages services or sending on electronic mails.As an administrator of a health nursing home, a telephone can help to reduce over-burdened office schedules by using the phone to give clinical advice, monitor performance of a patient, helps the patient self-monitor, discuss results and follow-up and to determine if emergency care is needed by the patient or further visits to health care are necessary. When the health administrator communicates to the patient in advance or at any time, it saves time and money for both the physician and the patient. As the technology is advancing, the practice of use of electronics in health care communication has improved as physicians and patients have used automated telephone systems automated on incoming and outgoing calls to increase efficiency of their communication and always keep in touch (Rimer, 1997). ii. Computer Care Computers have been used to serve the purpose of communication and storage of patient records in the health care institutions. Therefore, the computer will be useful to determine profiles of different patients where the administrator can get useful information that can be used to contact relatives of the patient and inform them about the amendments. Therefore, telephone and computers have improved quality of health care between the physician and patient in terms time sensitivity and communication of urgent issues. As a result, use of electronic communication, there has been increased demand for online care. There have been an upsurge number of physicians and patients who are practicing online health care and have influenced others desire and willingness to adapt online health care hence the number of online care users have continued to increase. Therefore, the administrator will be able to reach a large number of residents to inform them about the changes due to new policies implemented (Dijkstra, 2005). Advantages of Caring Patients Electronically Online caring of patients have enhanced nursing home services performances that has resulted to increased productivity and low health care cost. For example, making few phone calls that reduces administrative costs and expansion via attraction of new patients. Additionally, electronic mails are more confidential than phone in terms of interference. Moreover, communication is done at the convenience time of physician and patient. Therefore, the administrator will be able to communicate confidential information to the residents without outside parties getting informed. Reduced unwanted office visits of patient to the nursing home administrator by making online follow-up of the patient by the physician and informing the physician the convenient time to make a visit to the health care offices. Moreover, it helps patients to avoid time wasting from their daily busy schedules at their work place of daily chores. Through online care, it is possible to provide supplementary information in electronic communication. For example, physician can provide links to reliable web site based on the information on specific medication of a patient. Therefore, patients are able to get detailed information about a certain condition without any movement to health care centers. Disadvantages of Caring Patient Electronically Information can be manipulated easily during experiments hence there has been increased leakage of confidential information about a patient that have violated the rights of a patient. message sources could be varied to determine whether they are credible or they are coming from a trusted source, communication channel through which information is delivered could be personalized based on individual’s access to health care, health care needs or personal preferences. Limited access to nursing home and other structural barriers outside a patient personal control may be the cause of the intervention problem. This is because the patient does not need to visit health centers regularly. Unfortunately, the physician can forget to update the patient on time to visit the health care hence missing vital health services. Online care is not capable of determining change in behavior of the patient since they do not have physical contact. Additionally, population’s interests are not amenable to change by online information as it may require to be addressed physically. Advantage of Social Media Communication Method Social media will serve as the intermediary of the administrator and the patient’s families and relatives that are far away such as overseas. Therefore, through newspapers and television the administrator communication can be effective as the intended message can get to the intended recipient. For example, families and relatives of the patients admitted in the nursing home who are far away such as overseas would easily get the information. Therefore, they can arrange to pick their patient and transfer him or her to another nursing home available. Disadvantage of Social Media Communication Social media sometime can communicate misleading health information to the public that can impact negatively to the public. Moreover, sometimes are not reliable to communicate health information especially in rural areas or under-developed areas where there is poor infrastructure. Additionally, social media devices such as radio are dependent of on network. Therefore, in case of poor or failure of network, health information cannot be conveyed to the recipient. Effect of HIPAA and other Regulations The safe way to communicate online is to use a secure messaging system. Therefore, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulation requires health organizations concerned with nursing home services to protect any health information that can be conveyed electronically over open network to avoid online hackers, patients who want to access online care should be expected to provide certain kind of personal information; it would be practicable to include personality scales. There is also the issue of moderating variables such as messages and production quality that can be difficult to access. More attention should be paid to issues such as appropriate control for use of online health care since it is sensitive to confidentiality and care of the patient. HIPAA and other regulations emphasizes on the leakages of confidential patient information by unauthorized people since it violates the patient’s rights. Therefore, we can conclude that despite displacement of nursing home resident, the physicians can still offer health care services to the patients using either traditional or electronic method. Health care services can be communicated using telephones, computers and social media to communicate vital health care information from a nursing home to the out patients. On the other hand, HIPAA and other regulation should be active to protect confidential messages of a patient from the nursing home administration. References Davis, N. A .Rimer, B. K. (1997). Evaluation ofa phone intervention to promote mammography in a managed care plan.American Journal of Health Promotion, 11, 247–249. Dijkstra, A. (2005). Working mechanisms of computer tailored health education: Evidencefrom smoking cessation. Health Education Research, 20, 527–539. Matthew. W. (2011). Information and Communication Technology Sequences and Message Repetition in Interpersonal Interaction. London: Journal of Communication Ramer, BarbaraK.and Kreuter. (2006). Advancing Tailored Health Communication; Persuasion and Message Effects Perspective. New York: Journal of Communication. Read More