Communication in health care setting Essays

Communication in health care setting Essays Communication in health care setting Paper Communication in health care setting Paper Within any health and social care setting, interpersonal communication is vital between service provider and service user. During the process of interpersonal communication, there is always a sender, which sends a message across and a receiver on the opposite end to give feedback/reply. It was mentioned by Podmoroff (2013) that interpersonal communication skills are learned and can be improved. There are many methods and techniques that can be carried out to deliver appropriate interpersonal communications between individuals. Effective interpersonal communication skills between health care provider and patient is an important element for improving patient satisfaction, treatment compliance, and health outcomes (reference manual,1999) relating it back to the case study regarding Anna, it shows that there was poor and inappropriate interpersonal communication skills being demonstrated by the Dr, this resulted to incorrect treatment; leaving the service users disappointed, unhappy and unsatisfied with the service provided. For example, proper training can be delivered to service providers / staff every year, this would enhance skills already obtained, and improve services given to service users. Research indicates health counseling and education, as well as provider-patient interactions and communication, can improve interpersonal communication greatly. (Fallowfield 1998) Within any health and social care environment, there are many strategies put into place to support a number of servicer users; which cater to specific communication needs. These communication needs apply to those who are visually impaired, have the inability to speak or have hearing loss to name a few. In an healthcare environment, specific services are available for each specific need, for example some service centers provide language aids i.e. Braille for the blind. Other services provided are signing, Makaton; advocacy, interpretation, translation ( Edexcel,2010) which all cater to individuals with specific communication needs. In many health and social care setting there are a variety of service users who are all from different ethnic background and groups. Within todays society cultural norms and values are respected within society, as well as religion which is a sensitive factor and is key within the health care setting. Strong values and beliefs is an aspect of health care setting. For instance a muslim service user, request for halal meals as thats what the religion  require, it is only fair for the hospital or service provider to be able to provide the service user with their choice. Another influential factor is language some service user are unable to communicate effectively in the native language (english in this case), which may eventually lead to complications in putting forward feelings which normally ends up in breach of communication with health care provider / professional. Kingoloj (2013), mentioned in an article that The Department of Health ensures that when information is provided to the service users in leaflet form, that it is imperative to be distributed and be readily available in different language; in order to aid a vast majority. Additionally, the National Health Service (NHS) is known to provide translators if needed, this improved service delivered to clients. Other factors which influences the communication process within a health and social care environment include: age, sexuality, ethnicity, gender, education and social class.