Communication Problems in Health Care

Communication Problems in Health Care

The leaders use high-quality communication that is likely to be understood correctly by their subordinates. Apart from medical and technical skills, medical practitioners need to acquire excellent communication expertise for easier interaction with the patients. The healthcare executives relay information with hopes that encourage the workers to direct their efforts in pursuit of the set goals (Merrill, 2015). Due to poor communication, there has been an increase in medical mistakes, which eventually causes an intensification in the number of patients succumbing to more health problems after their first diagnosis. Transformational leadership is useful in preserving safety behaviors and solving conflicts among the employees. This paper aims to elucidate the issues of communication in Health Care and the incorporation of a transformational leadership style minimizing such problems.

Impact of Communication in Healthcare Delivery

According to Chutka (2016), communication is crucial in a direct association between the healthcare personnel and the patient, and when the messages are being sent through communication devices. The consequences of improper communication may be dangerous for the patient and probably even the medical practitioner. Inappropriate communication may cause errors in the diagnosis, forcing the patient to spend an otherwise avoidable prolonged stay in the hospital. It can even lead to the death of the patient in case of misdiagnosis. Several factors can cause diagnostic errors and medical mistakes, consequentially putting the patients in jeopardy. One of the errors includes failure to determine and record the health problems of the patient in a precise manner as well as providing a suitable description. Another mistake would be a failure to communicate the findings to the patient (Sargent,2020). This delay in the diagnostic process is commonly related to ineffective communication. To achieve optimal healthcare service delivery, these errors should be prevented by the installation of a proper communication system and employment of proper etiquette

The healthcare staff incorporates leadership skills in making critical decisions and communicating to ensure the smooth running of the organization for the success of inpatient and outpatient healthcare (Murray, 2019). The healthcare personnel in the diagnosis or the consultation room will be required to communicate effectively with the staff at the pharmacy to assist the patient in recovering from the diagnosed disease.

A strong relationship between the physician and the patient is essential in enhancing the alertness of the patient. Generally, strengthening a clear patient-physician relation has been a vital determiner of professional satisfaction and hence effectiveness on the medical practitioner’s part.

Positive relationships, therefore, are vital in conducting successful treatments mollifying both the patient and the physician. Chutka (2016), states that there are negative impacts in the field of healthcare where there is a lack of assimilation of functional correlations. A healthy relation boosts the patient’s eagerness to comply with drug prescriptions as well as alterations in their lifestyles and diet habits to help them live a healthier life. Perioperative communication is essential, and problems resulting from the insufficient collection of required information may arise.

Specialized operating rooms need high accuracy during communication since any miscommunication can lead to adverse consequences on the patients’ healthcare (Murray, 2019). However, the use of handoff protocols, checklists, and possibly encouragement to the team members to ask questions in situations of uncertainty might reduce the chances of miscommunication. Medical practitioners should take the responsibility of searching for any missing details to minimize mistakes that would cause patient dissatisfaction or resulting complications. Meeting the needs of the patient and offering secure and high-level healthcare services lead to inefficient communication. Proper communication enhances development and the provision of reinforcement that is essential for achieving desired patient results by granting a variety of healthcare provision.

Understanding of language and culture is a fundamental requirement for the provision of adequate healthcare services due to the increase of linguistic, cultural, and ethnic diversity. Due to this increase in variety, healthcare facilities need to have access to language services, including the availability of an interpreter. However, due to insufficient access of these services, or even complete lack of them, most healthcare organizations end up failing to treat patients who are not proficient in the English language, in the required manner.

Transformation Leadership Theory in Healthcare Performance

The style of management in the healthcare team is also an essential factor that influences the effectiveness of communication among the team members. It is crucial to understand transformational leadership to account for the focused efforts of the hospital employees in meeting the healthcare staff-client satisfaction. According to Deichmann and Stam (2015), transformational leaders concentrate their influential process on the emotions and the attitudes of the workers so that they focus on the vision and the goals of the organization. Merlino (2017), states that healthcare transformation is achieved by efficient communication avenues vertically, from top to bottom and bottom to up, and horizontally across the healthcare delivery range.

The healthcare staff incorporates leadership skills in making critical decisions and communicating to ensure the smooth running of the organization for the success of inpatient and outpatient healthcare (Murray, 2019). The healthcare personnel in the diagnosis or the consultation room will be required to communicate effectively with the staff at the pharmacy to assist the patient in recovering from the diagnosed disease.

The transformational physician executives can instill confidence, loyalty communication through a shared vision, work satisfaction, and boosting of the employees’ morale. Leadership and ethics scholars suggest that the transformational leadership process is predicated on a different set of ethical values. Transformational leadership develops intellectually, stimulating, and inspiring workers.  Inspired workers can communicate with each other with confidence hence minimizing the problems associated with the communication. The health providers will then generate problem-solving independently. Saravo, Netzel, and Kiesewetter (2017) explain that transformational leaders can affect job satisfaction among the employees through how they perceive the leader. Goals set by the team can be easily achieved if there are leadership personalities possessed by the team leader. The involvement of all the team members in communication facilitates proper handling of the patients and prevention of mistakes that might occur daily in the healthcare facility. Although stressful days might undermine effective communication, adequate guidance, and team encouragement by transformed leaders can assist in providing desirable outcomes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, poor communication can lead to adverse consequences to the patients and medical practitioners. The solution to the miscommunication has been discussed above. The main goal of leadership is to attain the collective purpose of the organization. Transformational leadership is seen to increase the confidentiality of the healthcare workers in relaying information to each other and the clients. Motivated healthcare staff work towards the set goal, which leads to the satisfaction of the patients.

.

References

Chutka, D. S. (2016, June). Assessing practical physician-patient communication skills: “Are you listening to me, doc?”. Retrieved February 8, 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4951737/.

Deichmann, D., & Stam, D. (2015). Leveraging transformational and transactional leadership to cultivate the generation of organization-focused ideas. The Leadership Quarterly, 26(2), 204-219.

Merrill, K. C. (2015). Leadership style and patient safety: implications for nurse managers. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 45(6), 319-324.

Murray, D. J. (2019, January 1). Communication Challenges During the Perioperative Period. Retrieved February 8, 2020, from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-17410-1_51

Saravo, B., Netzel, J., & Kiesewetter, J. (2017). The need for strong clinical leaders–Transformational and transactional leadership as a framework for resident leadership training. PloS one, 12(8).

Sargent, S. (2017, October 11). Communication Errors: A Leading Cause of Mistakes in Healthcare. Retrieved February 8, 2020, from https://www.sehealthcarequalityconsulting.com/2017/09/05/communication-errors-a-leading-cause-of-mistakes-in-healthcare/.

Smith, H. (2019, March 23). Patient-Provider Communication. Retrieved February 8, 2020, from https://www.patientprovidercommunication.org/bibliography.html