Introduction
Health outcomes are influenced by a variety of factors, one of which is clinician communication abilities.1 In fact, I took a class in medical school dedicated to teaching the art of the interview and how to properly build and maintain the sacred patient-clinician relationship. Health communication is growing field of medical research that both examines the current state of clinician communication and uses experiment to improve or further understand the process of disseminating health information. 2 This year, I spent 10 months researching health communication and medical decision-making using transcripts of real patient encounters from men with early stage prostate cancer and from women deciding between surgical treatment
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The rest of the conversation felt different. After the surgeon apologized again and explained that she could save the nipple on the non-cancerous side, but not the cancer side a family member asks the patient “That’s a big deal isn’t it?”
The Bad: Throughout the transcripts I have also noticed the sheer number of “medspeak.” Medical jargon, the vernacular of clinicians, forces the patient to decide if the clinician is sharing important concepts or irrelevant details. Furthermore, few patients are sufficiently healthcare literate to understand complex medical language. 4,5 In one transcript a women who is discussing treatment of her breast cancer asked about the imaging of her breast cancer to further understand her disease. The clinician responded with:
Clinician: There’s the stuff showing your PASH at nine o’clock and ten o’clock and there’s the invasive and then the receptors got split but your estrogen receptor is positive, progesterone receptor, positive and HER2 not overexpressed.
Patient: So can you – English?
Clinicians are entrenched in medical jargon and often assume that their patients understand the information they are conveying. Frequently, patients faced with jargon do not ask questions or interrupt like this patient did.6 Without this feedback from the patient, I assume the clinician would have continued on her explanation without realizing that her patient was lost, her question continuing to remain
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
A doctor should convey these information by simplifying the terminology of the illness or issue that a patient is currently suffering from, explaining it in reasonable terms, and as a reasonable person, for
The movie “The Doctor” is a good example of how communications in the health field work to benefit not only the patient, but the doctor too. In this movie, the main character, also known as Jack McKee, is a heart surgeon. The movie begins by showing how McKee’s attitude towards his patients tends to be inappropriate. Jack jokes about his patients and laughs at their concerns. His home life is also a struggle; his relationships with his wife and son are falling apart. The movie takes a turn when Jack becomes suddenly ill. He begins coughing up blood. He meets with a specialist by the name of Lesley. Tests reveal that Jack has a serious tumor on his vocal cords. He has now become the patient. He begins treatment but the results
People eat about one-third of their meals at restaurants, a figure that has almost doubled since the late 1970s.2 Fast food consumption is even higher among adolescents, with 75% eating fast food at least once a week.3
My time as an Emergency Room Medical Scribe has been insightful to a point that it has solidified my career path. Prior to entering this field of work, I didn’t realize how little I had known about terminology, doctor-patient interaction, or procedures. With a behind the scenes look, I could not only view but understand the reasoning behind a physician’s medical decision making. For example, there was once a patient who had the chief complaint of abdominal pain. This patient had been to the ER multiple times in the past and after a multitude of physical exams and imaging there was nothing to show as abnormal. Hitherto, the physician I was working with had a lengthy discussion with the patient and decided to do a CT after explaining the risks.
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
Every day in the health care field, professional have to choose the most effective communication method when communicating to other professionals, patients, patient families, and the general public. Different circumstances have very specific methods of communication that need to be utilized for communication to be effective. Furthermore, in the health care field the regulations of HIPAA have to be considered to ensure that certain information is being protected as well as identity of people pertaining to the health scenarios. Further will be discussed the methods of communicating in the health care field, the advantages
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
Since first year we have learned how to communicate with patients in the hospital through the proper skills that professors have taught us to use. Often, when we communicate with our patients it takes place at the bedside. Because I have been practicing communication since first year I had some idea of what it may be like when I met the family. Before my visit I wrote a number of questions that I planned to ask my family when I met them. It was challenging for me because I wasn’t sure if the questions were acceptable to ask, and I did not want to break privacy or ask inappropriate questions. During my first visit I realized that I was using nursing terminology when I was asking a question and when I was explaining an assignment.
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
In recent times, in the field of health communication, a shift in beliefs has become apparent. Many feel that the physician-centered approach is no longer the best way to manage the interaction between patients and doctors. A new collaborative approach has been adopted by many. This collaborative approach is more of a partnership between the patient and doctor. More communicating by the patient, and more listening by the doctor. When the doctor and patient speak to one another, they speak to each other as peers sharing ideas,
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.
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.
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).