Personal and Professional Health Care Communication Paper

A definition of health care communication: Communication can be described as the conveying of information from one party to another dependent on each party’s ability to comprehensively comprehend the relevance of the information being shared and more so the rules with which such information should be governed.  According to the Department of Health and Human Services, health care communication has been defined as the perfected art and acquired technique crucial to appropriately informing, positively influencing and effectively motivating health care professionals, institutions and the general public on fundamentally crucial health care issues. Health care communication should effectively encompass issues critical to disease prevention, the promoting of improved health care, policies adopted to improve on health care as well as improve on quality of life and general health of peoples in a given community.

The relevancy of effective personal health care communication with other health care professionals, clients, patients: a health care team can be considered as all the professionally trained medical personal integral to the provision of health care and the patients and clients involved in the dispensation of ensuring a healthy community. All the members of a health care team are tasked with carrying out very important roles in a health care environment. However, it is worthy to note that the role played by each member of a health care team is different and thus the need for proper and sufficient health care communication abilities.

According to Federal Agency for Health care Research and Quality (AHRQ) effective health care communication abilities provides the basis for improved levels of partnership involving the medical practitioners, the patients themselves and the patients families when the need so dictates in an effort to making professional decisions which encompass a patient’s wants needs and or preferred treatment. Health care professionals more so nurses should use their health communication skills to the test when asking for information on the education and necessary support for the patients to make the right decisions in improving their own personal healthcare.

To adequately ensure that patients are in a position to improve on their personal health, it has to interactively involve a patient’s immediate family circle; information is readily accessible and can be reliably shared as well as according utmost respect for a particular patient’s personal values, needs and acquired preferences. This can only be ensured through the aid of professionally coordinated and informed health care team.

There are three fundamental guiding principles for the provision of quality health care to the personal health of patients. Firstly, a patient and the immediate family members should manage personal health care in collaboration with a health care team that is well coordinated and appreciates, upholds and acts in a patient’s best interests. Secondly, in an effort to maximize on an improved health status, health care providers should endeavor to offer evidence based health care which is also cost effective with minimal effects that could cause discomfort and is is also free from avoidable misgivings. Lastly, in order for patients and their immediate families to make informed health decisions, they should be empowered with the ability to acquire and discern available health care information and the offered services.

The relevancy of effective professional health care communication to health outcomes: Effective and reliable communication is critically relevant to the ability of health care professionals to realize their objectives that primarily involves a healthy community through the application of the most appropriate healthcare communication techniques as is dictated by a community’s literacy levels. This brings about the need for health care professionals to apply their health care communication skills and techniques in investigating the available channels and the perceived association with communication avenues that can greatly improve and result in a positively desired health status for a particular patient.

Communication is crucial to enhancing and guaranteeing a patient’s safety through the provision of the best possible health care quality. For healthcare professionals, the need for effective and efficient communication amongst other health care professionals and more so with a patient is an essential part in ensuring the patient is satisfied with the services rendered; treatment procedures arte compliant and guaranteeing that the overall health care outcomes are positively realized.

It is worthy to note that a patient with some level of knowledge and understanding with regards to the ways in which a disease manifests itself and the need for a particular method and application of treatment has an improved sense of interaction with the health care provider. At such a level of interaction communication barriers are substantially sidestepped giving such a patient the comforting feeling that a health care provider is acting in the best interest of the patient’s health. This has a positive outcome evident through a greater level of satisfaction and more so improved adherence to treatment offered and commitment to a healthier life.

How the lack of effective personal and professional health care communications contributes to poor health outcomes: As discussed earlier the primary objective of effective communication is essentially to foster some form of understanding among parties. In a social setting there are many incidences in which misunderstandings bring about conflict or worse still transcend to complete breakdown in communication channels. Such situations bring about poor sharing of vital health care communication when one or more of the parties’ privy to a health care team fails to adhere to the rule of communication. These bring about negative or otherwise adverse results in healthcare provision.

A good example of such a scenario would be in the case where a patient has low literacy levels in the commonly accepted language and the lack of proper understanding put unnecessary strain on the health care team members and the patient or the immediate family. As such, it is upon the health care professionals to device means with which to eliminate such barriers in their effort to ensure a healthy community.

The theories and principles of therapeutic communication in health care settings for the health care professional:  Therapeutic communication can be termed as the application of communication techniques towards the effective and beneficial outcome on a patient’s health status. This type of communication has the effect of enhancing a patient’s capability to process information.  The facilitation of nurse-patient relationships is established through effective therapeutic communication and can be considered as one of the most important elements for a professional nurse.

Principles guiding nursing professional in therapeutic communication include; the nurse should engage in communicating with a patient at such a time as when the patient is comfortable and verbally able to communicate. Secondly, the nurse should appropriately inform a patient or client on the need for such a conversation. This is meant to ensure better cooperation between the patient and the nurse. Thirdly, in therapeutic communication, the nurse has the integral role to be a good listener and should ensure that clear information is received from the patient.

References

http://www.patientsorganizations.org/attach.pl/547/494/IAPO%20Patient-Centred%20Healthcare%20Review%202nd%20edition.pdf

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/369/ef_imp_comm.pdf

http://slincs.coe.utk.edu/lpm/ky/health_manual/comm_skills1.pdf

http://www.definitionofwellness.com/dictionary/health-communication.html