Examples Of Miscommunication Between Doctor And Patients

Communication in the healthcare field may be a little different for some people. Healthcare requires the communication to have a purpose, and that purpose is revolved around a person’s needs. A patient with good staff communication during

Establishing effective communication with the patient is a critical factor in promoting patient quality care. Good communication is fundamental when providing safe and effective care at the beside in order to increase the quality of patient care. One of the many communicative barriers that exists between patients and the healthcare team are language barriers. Language barriers are considered an initial problem of translation or code-switching. Individuals who speak different languages require a certain code breaker in order to facilitate effective communication (Gregg & Saha, 2007). Furthermore, language barriers may hinder the quality of patient care and interfere with optimal clinical outcomes. According to Happ et al., 2011, nurses have the unique responsibility to engage in communication with patients and have control over the timing and method of communication. Evidenced based interventions such as communication boards are needed to improve nurses’ communication skills in order to achieve effective communication.

To have quality of care within the health care system, effective communication is needed. Barriers arise when effective communication is not meet, patients with limited English proficiency are at risk for misdiagnosis, poor treatment decisions, trust between provider and patient is not there, and patients to not adhere to treatment plans and follow up if they do not understand what they need to do (Regenstein, Mead, Muessig, & Huang, 2009).

Non-English speaking citizens and immigrants are receiving improper medical care because of the miscommunication. The people who cannot speak English well are misunderstood, when they go to free clinics or hospital emergency rooms and attempt to explain their symptoms and illness or cannot understand the doctors or medical profession that are trying to help them. ” Interpreters are omitting questions about drug allergies. Patients are not telling nurses the correct symptoms. A mother misunderstood by putting oral antibiotic into the ears of the child instead of the mouth. The Puerto Rican word for mumps is not the same in Central America, so a child was mistreated. A doctor mistakenly told a parent to put a steroid crème on entire child instead of just the face” (Yolanda Prtida, 2005). Language barriers in the medical field are dangerous and some times even fatal. There is definitely a need for more translators in hospitals and doctors office. Clear communication is essential for safe quality healthcare. Poor communication can lead to disastrous outcomes, especially for patients with limited or no English ability.

Language is one social and cultural barriers that may have made it difficult for the doctors to communicate with Jessica’s family. It creates the trust that exists between a patient and a doctor and their guardians. When using a translator, meanings may change and the desired communication result may not be achieved. The trust that should exist between the doctor and the patient and the guardians

If you speak to a person in a way they do not understand they may get confused or feel patronised. It is important to repeat information and to make sure the patient understands.

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

Effective communication with patients is critical to the safety and quality care. From the last two decades ,number of researches has been conducted on the impact of language barrier on health and healthcare. It is observed that language barriers are the main cause of medical errors, complication and adverse event. But due to data limitations ,limited researches on impacts of language barrier has been conducted in Canadian setting. However, the researches conducted on other countries on the impact of language barrier on quality of care is applicable in the Canadian context. Some researches shows that there are several barrier which affect quality of care and patient safety. Now, researches has begun to know the complexity of language, culture, race, health literacy that may affect patient care. Current approaches are moved towards the knowledge of risk of language barrier rather than implementation of effective, evidence informed strategies.

The purpose of effective communication in healthcare is to provide first-class medical care, minimal to no medical errors and have precision; and without it there is room for medical errors, poor patient care and an ineffective team that produces undesired outcome. In the professional and patient relationship, the lack of good communication causes the patient to be apprehensive in asking questions, to worry about being bothersome because they feel other patients are sicker, and there is an assumption that the patient does not have any concerns. There are barriers to communication that include only one between the sender and receiver of the message understands the message, cultural differences, and lack of education. In sending the message it is essential that the message is received with clarity, it is concise and complete. If the patient has a language barrier, it can be masked by the patient not responding to information and it is detected as a result of poor or no compliance. In literacy concerns, all information should be presented on a 5th grade level to aid in the comprehension of the information. The care of the patient should be patient/family centered which helps in detecting any language, cultural or literacy barriers (Schyve, 2007). For example, a 46 year old single male patient that is functionally literate is admitted with a diagnosis of acute angina. During the

Many difficulties can happen if the physician is not communicating well with their patient or patients. Medical terms are hard enough to understand by themselves. if a physician just uses them and doesn’t explain them to the patient then the patient will not understand what they are talking about let alone understand what to do when it comes to the instructions the doctor wanted them to do. There is also the fact that there may be information that is very complex to understand and the patient may not understand any of it. If the physician cannot explain it to the patient then they will get confused on what the doctor is trying to explain to them. When a loved one is faced with a stressful situation or a heartbreaking one, there is difficulty

Good communication between physician and patient is vital for a patient to make an informed choice regarding their care.

A medical setting in which a patient feels safe and secure is more likely to create the conditions in which optimal outcomes can be achieved. Part of helping to ensure a patient feels secure is addressing the communication barriers between the provider and the patient. Some of these barriers arise from the use of professional jargon. Surgeons, Physicians, Nurses, etc. work at a fast pace to make sure that every patient is attended to. As this is their profession, medical jargon is used frequently when communicating to each other, figuring out a diagnosis, and coming up with a treatment plan for the patient. But this medical jargon creates a barrier between the healthcare professional and the patient. There can be misunderstandings between the patient and the professional when it comes to diagnoses and treatment plans due to the communication barrier. The professionals commonly use medical terminology to inform the patient of their status and a patient may simply nod their head to be polite. This nod does not necessarily mean that there is a mutual understanding, it could potentially mean that they are overwhelmed and don’t know how else to act in response to long confusing words being directed at them. This is dangerous because a patient could leave the facility not knowing how to appropriately take care of themselves after their procedure/diagnosis. Medical jargon has the potential to cause the patient and medical professional relationship to be both broken and

Professional Communication is a very important element in the foundation for a strong health care system. Communication can also serve as a basis for basic health care administered. Communication is not only the one tool in health care in which we can control, but also what helps prevent the derailment in patient-healthcare professional trust.. Types of model that can help express how important professional communication is within health care is the movie titled, The Doctor. There are various examples in this movie in which the importance of professional communication is portrayed and supports the argument, as well. These types of examples and supporting data can also be found in real life testimonies of what type of situations can result from lack of professional communication in the health care setting. Communication teaches the importance in human-to-human contact that some hospitals and health care setting may lack due to the certain personality type that is more attracted to the roles of doctors. Professional communication should remain at the forefront of bed side manner and proper etiquette in the health care field and setting.

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.