Essay on Navigating Effective Communication in Healthcare: Strengths, Challenges, and Strategies

Reflection of Personal Communication Style

Strengths

Verbal communication helps me in passing my thoughts and ideas clearly, to people that I communicate to. This is commonly achieved when there is a good relationship between the person and me I am communicating with. Another strength that I find in verbal communication is that; it enhances me to speak effectively and in an exciting manner. Since I am a person of humor, verbal communication helps me decide on the tone to use, spend, and the volume of the speech. Besides, verbal communication helps me to express myself to others in all situations. Therefore, I can easily relate to my audience by using speech etiquette to avoid offending them. Besides, verbal communication helps me to save time and money. I usually send the message to the intended audience at a rapid speed, and immediately. The last strength that I find in verbal communication is the quickness of feedback. Through this, the audience can ask for clarification without delay.

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Limitations

The common challenge that I face with verbal communication is that; it is not convenient to carry a particular message for a long time. Therefore, if verbal communication takes too long, the audience is likely to forget the key points mentioned earlier. Irrelevant information is another challenge that I usually experience, which affects the effectiveness of verbal communication. For example, when having a meaningful discussion with my audience, a lot of unrelated information may creep in, creating a gap in the relevant information and wasting time. Besides, verbal communication can sometimes create misunderstandings. For example, there are some cases where hints are given with some intention that can get misinterpreted, and a new meaning comes out of that.

Interaction with Other Styles of Communication

Verbal communication is used together with other communication styles, like nonverbal. Verbal communication is vital in the healthcare context since multi-disciplinary healthcare requires members who speak verbally with one another, patients, and family members. Non-verbal communication, on the other hand, does not rely on words. It is sent through one's body expressions and not written or said. In most cases, I find myself using both verbal and non-verbal communication at the same time. The combination of these two styles enhances the effectiveness of understanding the intended message. For example, I usually use them while having a face to face communication.

Negative Aspects of Your Communication Style

Developing New Strengths

Effective communication occurs when the audience understands the message delivered to them by the communicator, and as intended by the communicator. I like communicating with people in one way or another. However, I don’t like involving my audience so much in my communication. Failure to engage them is a critical factor in communication since it determines whether they get the message as intended or not. Audiences usually have short attention spans, regardless of how persuasive the speaker is. To develop it to strength, I need to ask them questions, request their ideas, and encourage them to brainstorm among themselves in the middle of the conversation.

Improving and Controlling ‘Trouble Spots’

My main trouble spot in verbal communication is anger. Something may creep in in the middle of communication and trigger my anger. In return, this affects my contact with the audience- I might find myself being rude to the audience. As a health officer, this is a factor that I should control at all costs. This is simply because; talking to patients with anger may worsen their conditions, by affecting them psychologically. Therefore, I need to seek help from a therapist. An anger therapy will help me handle anger issues; understand the origins of my anger, like underlying, painful feelings, and establish positive coping strategies.

Overcoming Challenges

The challenges that I do face with my style of communication are; inconvenience, irrelevant information, and misunderstanding. If these factors are experienced in communication, then that communication is not meaningful. I am working on improving the effectiveness of communication by using the PIP approach. This involves considering the purpose, importance, and preview of the particular message being communicated. Besides, if there is a lack of effectiveness in communication through the mentioned factors, it is essential to keep reminding the audience about the key points. I think this is another strategy that I would implement whenever I communicate with my audience.

Communication in Health Practice

As a health practitioner, I have learned the factors that make verbal communication vital in the healthcare setting. Communication with patients is essential since they are the ones primarily attended to in health facilities. Additionally, most of the information that patients are eager to hear involves verbal communication. Verbal information in healthcare organizations helps in disease management, prevention messaging, and billing transparency.

Disease Management

In disease management, health experts should provide disease-specific information to the patients, to help them feel valued. Through this approach, they are likely to follow the advice given by the nurse. Patients are also looking for health goal information. They intend to know what they should be working towards attaining to better their health. It can include blood pressure levels (Street Jr et al., 2009). Lastly, they are after medication reminders to help them with their meds during treatment.

Prevention Messaging

Under this category, communication should entail lab test updates, text messaging, and health management advice. Waiting for lab results is exhausting for many patients, so they always want the providers to help monitor and inform them of their products. This information includes letting patients know when to pick up their results and explaining what the results mean. Younger patients prefer text messaging; they would rather receive a text than talk to the provider via a phone call (Street Jr et al., 2009). Finally, the information should reach the patients on the activities they need to do to stay healthy.

Billing Transparency

Patients want clarity on the costs they are to pay while seeking health services. As a health provider, you must inform the patient of what they will need to pay and when it is due. Ensure they know what they need to pay before they receive the bill, and the facility should accept various forms of payment (Street Jr et al., 2009). Such a state enables patients to make timely payments.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I strongly support the promotion of effective communication in health practice. Communication can indeed be challenging due to the nature of the work environment. However, nurses train in communication skills, and so they must ensure they communicate effectively. They have to show confidence while engaging patients and other staff. Additionally, nurses must always try to improve their communication skills; For this reason, they still choose to work in different regions to broaden their knowledge and experience. For instance, if you have not used it in China, you might know that talking about death is considered taboo according to their traditions. Communication skills are essential as they help identify the most appropriate types of communication that suit different scenarios. The models of communication must be employed to ensure the observation of the set guidelines.

References

Kourkouta, L., & Papathanasiou, I. V. (2014). Communication in nursing practice. Materia socio-medica, 26(1), 65.

Ruben, B. D. (2016). Communication Theory and Health Communication Practice: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same1. Health Communication, 31(1), 1-11.

Schiavo, R. (2013). Health communication: From theory to practice (Vol. 217). John Wiley & Sons.

Street Jr, R. L., Makoul, G., Arora, N. K., & Epstein, R. M. (2009). How does communication heal? Pathways linking clinician-patient communication to health outcomes. Patient education and counselling, 74(3), 295-301.