Communication in a Hospital, Research Paper Example

Effective communication within an organization brings about understanding through the creation of meaning of the message conveyed. The modes of communication within a hospital include both verbal and non-verbal. The hospital working team gets involved in writing, listening and speaking during the process of sharing health information. There is an active involvement of health communication with the patients and between the workers themselves. Patients in a hospital are active agents of communication since they influence the way it is conducted. In my hospital, patients are seen to be submissive to the doctors who do the most talking. Proper communication is necessary in meeting the medical goals of a hospital and in the enhancement of the personal well being. Those patients who are active in their medical encounters usually get satisfaction from the doctors and trust the diagnoses that are given to them and by this trust they are able to follow the instructions given for their treatment. The effective interpersonal communication within the hospital offsets the costly consequences of low health literacy.

Communication in a hospital is impacted by various challenges and barriers where by gender and cultural differences are among them. They are seen to influence the way messages are sent and the kind of message sent. Both gender and cultural differences may impact a hospital’s communication either positively or negatively thus determining the outcome of the organization. In considering gender, Du Pre (2005) says that men and women normally don’t communicate in a similar way since females become more non-verbally expressive, talk more than men and give out personal information which is crucial in health care situations. Women have more knowledge in healthcare issues as compared to men. This influences the way the health professionals relate to the patients, caregivers and fellow workers. For example, most of these professionals share little information with males unlike with females. However, research has it that, “health professionals typically take men’s concern more seriously than women’s.”

As a patient, there is a small difference in female’s and male’s preferences. In considering the doctor’s sex, male patients have no strong preferences unlike the female counterparts who favor female doctors and have a preference on the women’s clinics. With the case of the caregivers, there is no relevance in their satisfaction with regard to age and sex of the patients. Du Pre (2005) states that, “whether male, female, young or old, patients tend to want the same things of care and respect.” Sexual orientations also matters a lot in communication about health information. It is therefore important for the health care providers not assuming the issue of heterosexual relationships and become open minded on the different kinds of relationships.

Cultural diversity which is significantly increasing in terms of races, spiritual beliefs and other cultural differences should also be looked into so as to make communication effective. The diverse cultural beliefs of a person concerning health and illness impact on health communication. It influences on what health issue is talked about, the way it is portrayed, the way a patient describes his or her problem and the reason as to why the patient seeks medical care. It is therefore necessary for the care givers and medical professionals to recognize and appreciate the cultural diverse ways in which health and illness is viewed. Misunderstandings usually occur when people hold different ideas on the cause and nature of a disease, and on how they act on different health care situations.

People’s thought on illness and health care is influenced by one’s cultural mode of expression. As good health care communicators, it becomes necessary in understanding the cultural diversity because through people’s cultural beliefs and customs, health related behavior is influenced. “Surmounting cultural barriers enhances our ability to work for better outcomes. Culture makes a sense of illness in different ways for example, when a disease seems to defy an explanation people believe that it is caused by witchcraft or divine intervention” (Tamparo & Wilburta 2000).

The barriers to effective communication ought to be reduced by acquiring necessary care giver skills. These skills include: being respective and attentive while communicating, letting the patients know the expected and being explicit on their questions and feelings. It is necessary to consider the kind of person one is communicating to. When communicating with individuals with disabilities, the health care providers should communicate differently, either slowly or loudly, so that proper meaning of the message is conveyed. In effective health care communication, the health care workers should be able to listen first and learn the culture of the patient in order to enable him to reduce any given stress and fear that can be a barrier to communication. The health care givers should be trained not to rush interactions and not to take offense on one’s angry outburst or comment.

References

Du Pré, A. (2005). Communicating about health: Current issues and perspectives. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Tamparo, C. & Wilburta, L. (2000). Therapeutic Communications for Health Professionals (2^nd ed). Canada: Delmar.