Communication and Interpersonal Skils - Patient-Physician Communication - Essay Example

Literature review

Duffy, Gordon, Whelan, Cole-Kelly & Frankel (2004), explain that bilingual expertise if a fundamental skill in the dispensation of health services. The skill facilitates effective communication between practitioners and their patients thereby overcoming communication barriers. Communication is an important aspect of the practice that facilitates the dispensation of high-quality services. Effective communication, for example, helps safeguard the accuracy of diagnosis. The diagnosis of most diseases relies on the ability of the patient to describe his condition to the health practitioners (Clark, 2003). Communication, on the other hand, relies on the elimination of all barriers in the process key among which include ethnic differences between the doctor and the patient. This explains the need for bilingual expertise especially in cosmopolitan societies in which people from various backgrounds coexist readily. Furthermore, the quality of communication between a doctor and a patient restores the confidence of the patient and the doctor. Doctors operate under strict ethical standards, which compel them to safeguard the safety of their patients. The patients, on the other hand, trust the doctors and therefore anticipate the safety of the procedures. With effective communication, the process becomes easier with each party understanding the other thereby enhancing the safety of the entire procedure (Asnani, 2009). 

Analysis

The importance and relevance of bilingual expertise in the practice manifested itself to me while I served as an intern at a local health facility in the city of San Francisco. As expected, the city of San Francisco is a cosmopolitan society with its inhabitants coming from diverse backgrounds. The dispensation of health services thus relies on the ability of the different parties to overcome the differences in language arising from ethnic differences (Medical Group Management Association, 2011). Among my key roles was the translation of first aid training literature to the appropriate language. First aid is a basic skill often relevant in every aspect of society. First aid training thus imparts the local society with much-desired skills. However, with the existing language barriers, the training becomes difficult a feature that validates my roles at the facility. Additionally, I also updated the information on both the database and on the patients’ chart. Effective information on the patients’ charts helps the diagnosis process since the doctor obtains the history of the patient thereby facilitating the diagnosis and training process. In retrospect, bilingual expertise facilitates the dispensation of health services, by updating the project information on the databases; I facilitated effective communication and safeguarding the safety and quality of the health services rendered by health care facilities (Makaryus & Friedman, 2005).