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Health Literacy and Communication

   

Added on  2021-05-31

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Running head: HEALTH LITERACY AND COMMUNICATIONHEALTH LITERACY AND COMMUNICATIONName of the student:Name of the university:Author note:

1HEALTH LITERACY AND COMMUNICATIONEffective communication is one of the most important aspects in the healthcare in themodern generation. This attribute between the patients as well as the healthcare providers hasbecome a critical element for developing quality of the care provided to patients. In the moderngeneration, Australia has become a nation where people from various backgrounds have foundsecured shelter in the nation and are living stable lives. Therefore, the healthcare-centres need toprepare their employees in ways by which they can meet the needs and requirements of thepatients who come to seek healthcare service from the healthcare centres in culturally competentway (Beatncourt et al., 2016). People from different cultures have their own beliefs, attitudes,behaviours as well as biases that have the capability to influence the patient care. Becomingaware of the cultural needs of the patients help, the healthcare providers to modify their careplans and communicate them in ways that make them feel respected (Purnell, 2014). Becomingculturally aware and developing cultural knowledge of different types of persons living in thenation of Australia is therefore important for the development of communication skills that alignwith their culture. This would ensure them to provide care that would ensure high patientsatisfaction.Two forms of communication need to be developed by the healthcare professionals toprovide high quality satisfactory care to patients. One of them is the linguistic competence. Withthis communication skill, healthcare professionals would be able to communicate effectivelywith diverse populations that include individuals who have limited English proficiency. Thedevelopment of this skill is also found to be important for handling culturally diverse people whomay have low literacy skills or those who are not literate, disabled or have hearing disabilities(Hendson et al., 2015). Effective communication can never be achieved if there is cultural aswell as linguistic barrier. Therefore, in such situations, organisations mainly help the

2HEALTH LITERACY AND COMMUNICATIONprofessional to develop linguistic competence in two ways. The organisation can educate theprofessionals to develop the language knowledge of the most common culturally diverse patientsof the nation who come for healthcare service. Moreover, it is also seen that healthcareorganisations are now a days trying to appoint professional trained interpreters who are helpingthe healthcare providers to communicate with the patients successfully. Many patients havelimited English proficiency and therefore the information that they provide to the healthcareprofessionals are not well understood by the healthcare service providers (Douglas et al., 2014).This results in inappropriate practices, medication errors and many others that may threaten thelife of patients. Therefore, in order to provide culturally safe care, professionals, interpreters helpin relaying fill information to professionals to help them develop high quality care plan.Therefore, individuals who face cultural and language barriers are advised to contact higherauthorities in cases where they require interpreters for providing culturally competent services.Another most important aspect of culturally competent communication is properknowledge of the nonverbal cues that are used by the healthcare professionals while providingcare. Patients are seen to be a very keen observer of the body language of the professionals whenthey are providing care and this body language helps them to develop certain assumptions aboutthe professionals. They tend to understand whether the professional is confident, caring,empathetic, and compassionate and genuinely cares for the patient. Such body language and nonverbal cues also play an important role in healthcare services helping to provide culturallyappropriate care services (Betancourt et al., 2014). Eye contact while communicating and caringfor the patient are perceived by different cultures in different ways and therefore professionalsshould be well aware of this nonverbal communication skill. For example, most of the patientsfrom Asian culture are mainly seen to take direct eye contact as a disrespecting gesture and

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