Promoting effective communication among healthcare professionals to improve patient safety and quality of care This guide was prepared as part of the Victorian Quality Council’s project on improving communication among healthcare professionals. July 2010 VQC – A guide to improving communication among healthcare professionals Published by the Hospital and Health Service Performance Division, Victorian Government Department of Health, Melbourne, Victoria. July 2010 This booklet is available in pdf format and may be downloaded from the VQC website at http://www.health.vic.gov.au/quality council © Copyright State of Victoria, Department of Health, 2010 This publication is copyright. No part may be reproduced by any process except in …show more content…
Supporting evidence from high quality intervention studies1, linking ineffective communication between health professionals and adverse patient consequences [10] is largely lacking, as are studies demonstrating that effective communication leads to improved patient outcomes (Level III-3) [11]. There are numerous intervention studies indicating that the use of structured communication tools or other strategies in health care improves the structure and quality of information exchanged between healthcare professionals, and/or reduces patient harm. Generally, these studies are based on lower levels of evidence. For example, The World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist leads to reduced rates of inpatient complications and death (Level III-3) [12]. The use of structured communication tools and briefings in the transfer of patients between health facilities results in improved access to necessary medications on arrival at the receiving health facility (Level IV) [3]. The introduction of perioperative safety briefing before and after surgery resulted in zero wrong site surgeries (compared to three at baseline) and increased reporting of near misses by staff (Level IV) [13].
People communicate in order to establish and maintain relationships with others, to give and receive info and instructions, to understand and be understood, to share opinions, knowledge, feelings, and emotions, to give encouragement and show others they are valued. Communication is an essential tool a carer can use to meet the needs of people. It is the basic requirement of the job role to communicate with individuals and staff members on a daily basis. Communicating with other staff members ensures effective team working and continuity of care. It also ensures any health and safety issues and recognised and reported.
Communication is all around us. It’s the way we interact with each other in everyday living. Our senses have a lot to do with the way we receive communication, and even if a sense is impaired there are still ways to get the idea across to people.
Within a health care setting communication is a necessity. This communication not only includes the need for professional communication but also the way in which information is shared to the patient and to other healthcare workers. Another important aspect of health care worker such as a nurse is the effectiveness off a handover. Within the video, Effective Communication in nursing these three aspects of communication (Professional communication, provision of information and handover) were seen and will be analysed further, within this essay. These will be analysed through the three aspects, the care of the patient, the image of the individual nurse and the health outcomes of the patient. All of these three aspects of communication are vitally important to the overall patient needs.
The role of the nurse in the healthcare setting is to be supportive, informative, advocate and help patient through their treatment journey through the use of language- verbal and non-verbal.
A plan that could be used to clarify a misunderstanding would be if a service user could not understand ones line of questioning, pictures could be used to combat this if the misunderstanding was still apparent after using this method one could resort to writing down the question and asking it slowly and clearly so that all parties understand what is being asked or requested.
An effective communication takes an important part in the health and social care settings. Communication is the way how we express our own feelings and thoughts, giving and receiving with each other and what make us become independent through making choice and the ways we learn. Between analysing Alan’s case, this essay will demonstrate the importance of effective communication when working with diverse communities in health and social care sector.
Therapeutic communication is seen as a complex skill that involves much subtlety and requires a range of different approaches (Jones, 2009). The importance of therapeutic communication and professional relationships with patients as a prime means of attaining healthcare treatment found to be the underlying theme in interpersonal relationships ( Arnold and Boggs, 2011). Therapeutic communication can create a nurse-patient relationship that enhances choice and responsibility, improves patient input and cooperation and thereby maximizes care outcomes (Rosenberg and Gallo-Silver, 2011). By integrating knowledge with compassion, the skill of therapeutic communication is regarded as the nurse’s greatest asset in reducing stresses and establishing a bond (Rosenberg and Gallo-Silver, 2011). Therefore, person-centred communication is regarded as the mandatory fundamentals in health professions (O’Toole, 2012). Attaining person-centred communication is often challenging and it is essentially required in health professions (O’Toole, 2012). One of the important basis for patient-centred communication is the effective listening (O’Toole, 2012). This essay briefly explains the various components of active listening skills that enhance therapeutic communication. Finally this essay concludes with a self-assessment of the current knowledge and skills that the author possess, followed by a development plan that shows the goals and strategies that can be used to improve author’s active
This is a mandatory unit in the Edexcel Level 3 Diploma in Health and Social Care (Adults) for England (QCF)
There are a number of barriers to effective communication in health and social care. One of these is environment. If the environment gets in the way of effective communication, then the receiver may not understand the message that is being given to them. An example of environmental factors in a health and social setting would be a busy hospital being uncomfortably busy or loud. If a patient is in a busy ward and cannot relax due to excessive noise, phones ringing and people bustling in and out, they will not be able to relax or get any proper rest, which will affect their recovery.
Communication is one of the most crucial aspects in my role as a lead support worker. Communication is ubiquitous, and we perform it within a wide spectrum that is entirely dependent on context. People chat informally socially in a bar, parents adopt it with simplicity when reading their children bed time stories and workplace managers use it formally when in professional meetings. To be an effective communicator in the health and social care sector one has to understand the communicative needs of the recipient.
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.
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.
Communication, in healthcare, is a multidimensional concept that involves patients, family members, and a health care team. There is a direct correlation with communication, improving a patient's well being, and quality of care. Adequate communication among physicians and their patients is an actively growing research topic. Results supplied by such studies have provided effective recommendations for oncologists and their team. These recommendations include the patient-physician relationship, how physicians utilize medical information, how physicians deal with patient emotions, physician self-management, and educational conferences designed to sharpen communication. Communication is important during each phase of cancer care.
Oral communication in healthcare is a continuous process and is extremely important for all those involved. Nurses relay relevant information to patients and their family, they are also responsible for updating the physician about the condition of their patients as well as nurse to nurse reporting. This communication is a fundamental part of the nursing process and can result in either quality effective care or ineffective care caused by lack of information. Written communication between the doctors, nurses, patients, and patient families can occur in a number of forms whether handwritten nursing notes or electronic medical records. Both forms are permanent