Strategies for Effective Communication in Clinical Settings: A Review

This assignment focuses on the importance of effective communication and strategies to develop them in clinical settings, using a case study of a patient with a language barrier. It identifies communication gaps as a significant cause of clinical errors, such as documentation, assessment, and misunderstanding of follow-up instructions. The assignment highlights the need for patient-centered care, using updated EHR systems, hiring multilingual staff, and providing instructions in the patient's preferred language. It also discusses the potential consequences of communication errors, including incorrect diagnoses, strained patient-healthcare professional relationships, and delayed recovery. The study draws on various research sources to emphasize the importance of effective communication in improving patient safety and overall healthcare quality.

Importance of effective communication and strategies to develop
them in clinical settings
Author’s Names
Patient’s summary
Druhi Neupane is a 48 year old lady and she has been migrated from Nepal
to Australia along with her family. She is being treated for abdominal pain.
Risk of clinical error with the patient
in Hospital
The common causes of medical errors consist
of insufficient language proficiency.
According to the literatures, the language
concordance between the patient and the
healthcare provider is essential and in order
to ensure the accurate patient assessment,
effective communication is highly significant
(de Moissac and Bowen 2018). Language
barrier also impacts in managing some
chronic diseases. Evidences from different
literature sources indicate that language
barrier adversely affect the quality of care (de
Moissac and Bowen 2018). From the
patient’s overview following causes have
been found that can potentially cause risk of
errors.
 The patient cannot speak much English
 Her family also have minimal English
 The main risk of clinical error can be
caused by communication gap as English is
their second language
In a study the authors selected 20 different
general hospitals and analyzed the impact of
communication barrier in the quality of care.
The findings from the study revealed that
patients having issues with communication
were 3 times more likely to suffer from some
adverse events that are preventable in
hospitals than the other patients with no
language issue. The result of the study
emphasized the importance of establishing an
effective communication in the patient care in
order to improve the safety of them (Bartlett
et al. 2008)
In a survey in hospital, 38 cases of negative
patient feedback were analyzed using
qualitative content analysis and main issue
was communication error which affected their
experience with the quality of care (Kee et
al., 2018)
Strategies to address the issues
In order to address the errors, 4
different strategies can be identified.
1. Using an updated EHR can be
helpful in order to get an
accurate information about
patients’ health during
documentation (Aceto, Persico
and Pescapé 2018).
2. Establishing a patient-centered
care with compassion and
empathy can reduce
miscommunication.
3. Hiring professional staff-
members according to the
language of the patient can be a
strategy to address the
communication gap (Barrett
2018).
4. Medication and follow-up
instruction should be provided
to the language which patient
prefers and in this regard,
including an interpreter can be
another strategy.
3 clinical errors and its
effects
Gap in communication can
cause massive clinical errors.
They are as follows:
Documentation and
assessment error: It can result
in wrong diagnosis and
assessment of any disease.
Miscommunication due to
language barrier: Due to this, a
trustful relationship between the
patient and the healthcare
professionals cannot be built
(Foronda, MacWilliams and
McArthur 2016).
Not understanding follow-up
instruction: Due to language
gap, patient cannot understand
the instructions of the
healthcare professionals that
can slow up the recovery
process (Hacker et al. 2015).

Works cited
Aceto, G., Persico, V. and Pescapé, A., 2018. The role of Information and Communication
Technologies in healthcare: taxonomies, perspectives, and challenges. Journal of Network and
Computer Applications, 107, pp.125-154.
Barrett, A.K., 2018. Electronic health record (EHR) organizational change: explaining resistance
through profession, organizational experience, and EHR communication quality. Health
communication, 33(4), pp.496-506.
Bartlett, G., Blais, R., Tamblyn, R., Clermont, R.J. and MacGibbon, B., 2008. Impact of patient
communication problems on the risk of preventable adverse events in acute care
settings. Cmaj, 178(12), pp.1555-1562.
de Moissac, D. and Bowen, S., 2018. Impact of language barriers on quality of care and patient safety
for official language minority Francophones in Canada. Journal of Patient Experience,
p.2374373518769008.
Foronda, C., MacWilliams, B. and McArthur, E., 2016. Interprofessional communication in
healthcare: an integrative review. Nurse education in practice, 19, pp.36-40.
Hacker, K., Anies, M., Folb, B.L. and Zallman, L., 2015. Barriers to health care for undocumented
immigrants: a literature review. Risk management and healthcare policy, 8, p.175.
Kee, J.W., Khoo, H.S., Lim, I. and Koh, M.Y., 2018. Communication skills in patient-doctor
interactions: learning from patient complaints. Health Professions Education, 4(2), pp.97-106.