A Study on Non-Verbal Communication Strategies Used by Doctors

In this assignment, I will talk about developing Effective Communication in Health and Social Care. In order to achieve, I will explain the role of Effective communication and Interpersonal Reaction in a Health and Social Care setting context. I will also discuss theories of communication such as Formal and Informal communication. In order to have good communication skills it is important to understand the effectiveness of communication and interaction formed between people.

This assignment is a reflective account on communicating with a patient who cannot communicate verbally. To remain confidential I will call the patient, Patient A. I’m going to discuss the importance of non-verbal communication within a healthcare setting. Patient A was a 63 year old lady suffering from MND which resulted in her losing her speech.

In this assignment I am going to be explaining the factors that may influence communication and interpersonal in health and social care environments and also I am going to be explaining the strategies used in health and social care environments to overcome barriers to effective communication and interpersonal interactions. I will be including sensory deprivation, foreign language, jargon, slang, dialect, acronyms, cultural differences, distress, emotional difficulties, health issues and environmental problems, misinterpretation of message, aggression, assertion and how they can be overcome.

Investigating problems on both the doctors and patients side during the interaction at any medical appointment is key when interpreting statistics that relate to this matter. These aspects will be further explored later in this paper. The general consensus from many articles and studies indicate that miscommunication is a massive problem that impacts many individuals who die each year from miscommunication. Furthermore, each article shows a different perspective on where this error comes from and where, both doctor and patient, go wrong and what they can both do to improve the communication between them. Another aspect that must also be incorporated into this argument is that communication is not all verbal and that non-verbal communication can be just as effective or ineffective when it comes to dealing with other medical personnel or patients. The 7% rule coined by Albert Mehrabian in his book “Silent Messages” states that “93% of communication is non-verbal, with 55% being body language and 38% being tone of voice; leaving only 7% of communication being verbal.” (“Silent Messages” Albert Mehrabian), and that ineffective or bad non-verbal communication can be just as detrimental during an interaction as verbal communication. Unfortunately, for doctors, the precision of the execution in this small 7% of communication is crucial when explaining challenging

A pivotal aspect of receiving quality medical care is being able to communicate your health concerns and have confidence and trust in your doctor, which is essentially the doctor patient relationship. Yet, this

This assignment is centred on effective interpersonal interaction and good communication in health and social care which is achieved through the use of multiple communication methods and techniques and the analysis of how certain types of people think and communicate.

In summary, the experience of observing and reflecting on this video vignette, elevated my understanding of the range of techniques that enhances communication therapeutically, such as active listening, empathy, developing rapport and the use of non-threatening body language and tone of voice to alleviate patient anxiety and illicit patient cooperation. Moreover, the act of reflective contemplation gave me an understanding of what it means to be self-aware - to be able to recognise and arrest idiosyncrasies such as personal moral values and cultural beliefs so as to promote a healthcare environment that is patient-centred. As general workplace and healthcare resource pressures increases, it becomes even more relevant for healthcare practitioners and future clinicians to be versed in such techniques, so that despite the pressure, they are better able to manage their emotional and physical

Communication is a basic, root function of living. Communication happens with words, without words, using symbols, gestures, sounds, and drawings. Sometimes getting the idea across to the receiver of the communication is a difficult task when there are communication barriers such as different languages, cognitive ability, and disability. Communication is an essential tool that needs constant use and refinement to be effective for the user and receiver. In this paper, the basic elements of communication, health care communication, consumer communication, and cultural differences in communication will be the topics of discussion.

It is my belief that every patient, regardless of the severity of their condition/presenting complaint deserves my undivided attention and I am also aware of the importance of ‘getting right’ those first crucial moments of a consultation. How the patient is greeted, patient comfort and environment all shape the patients first impression and help to develop communication and rapport (Egan, 1998).

Communication plays a vital role in the healthcare setting, as the relationship with the healthcare professional sets the tone of the care experience and has a powerful impact on patient satisfaction. It is “the shared process in which messages are sent and received between two or more people which are made up of a sender, receiver, and message in a particular context” (cite, date). This essay highlights the importance of, and some common barriers to, effective communication in the healthcare setting. It involves many interpersonal skills such as effective observation, questioning and listening, giving feedback, recognizing and removing barriers.

“Extensive research has shown that no matter how knowledgeable a clinician might be, if he or she is not able to open good communication with the patient, he or she may be of no help” (Asnani, MR. 2009). Effective communication plays a big role in healthcare and contributes to the quality of patient care and teamwork.

This is an analysis of a taped interview between a nurse and a patient who is taking pre-employment medicals. The information given during the interview, including her name, Pink Cloud is fictitious because of the need of confidentiality. During the interview, objective and subjective data will be collected. The areas of communication focused on in the analysis are verbal, questioning and listening skills. Analysis will be made and later suggestions and recommendations will be made on how to make improvements in the future. To achieve this, direct quotations from the will be used to make references to the three theories being analysed and will be supported by the literature.

Nontherapeutic expressions or gestures can disrupt a good, positive communication between the provider and the patient. Some of those nontherapeutic phrases or gesture are talking about something not related to the patient’s problem, negating their problems and preventing them from sharing by asking closed- ended questions. Sometimes the provider disrupt the patient’s willingness to talk about worries by giving personals opinions or expressing approval or disapproval constantly. Taking action by precipitately interpreting the patients concerns, or precipitately ending a conversation can shut off the patient and make difficult and even impossible to provide a therapeutic, positive communication. Another way of limiting patients from expressing

There are a number of key elements that help to provide a framework that enhances truthful communication. Firstly, there is the need to develop open and honest communication from the very beginning of the patient-health professional relationship. Secondly, the health professional needs to use patient penchant as a “weigh” by asking them what they wish to know, how much they wish to know, and determining what they already know. In other words, it is a responsibility of the health professional to get a ‘feel’ for the situation, including the patients’ perception of the situation (Ashcroft, Dawson & Drape 2007).

During the study, Davidson said that the scarcity of time become the factor of the patient in medical interview. It is because the patients who used interpreter often were left alone for sometimes an hour while they waited for the interpreter to arrive (Baker, 2010 p.160). Moreover, Davidson said that the interpreters are possibly conducted the interview with the patient before the physician arrived (Baker, 2010 p.160). They took a charge of physician’s position by asking questions the patient about the illness before they convey it to the physician. This affects the process of elaborating a Chief Complaint from patient which becomes shorter. Besides, the interpreters also would occasionally go so far as to conduct the initial portions of the interviews itself. According to Davidson in Baker (2010, p.164) the interferences of interpreter in medical interview create harms for the physician. For instance, in