Communication Skills in Healthcare: Analysis and Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of communication in the healthcare sector, emphasizing the importance of effective communication and listening skills for nurses, caregivers, and other healthcare professionals. It explores the impact of communication on patient care, compliance, and the creation of a positive environment. The report delves into the significance of verbal and non-verbal communication, highlighting how active listening and clear instructions enhance patient outcomes. Furthermore, it examines various modes of written communication, such as medical records, referral letters, and electronic mail, and their role in maintaining accurate records, facilitating information exchange, and ensuring accountability. The report also includes literature reviews and examples to support the claims made, providing a well-rounded understanding of communication dynamics in healthcare settings. This report aims to help students understand the intricacies of communication and its role in providing quality healthcare.

Communication Report
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3

Importance of listening and communication skills in healthcare sector.....................................3
Modes of written communication skills in healthcare sector and their importance...................5
CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................................8
........................................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
This report covers significance of effective communication, listening skills, digital and
written communication abilities for nurses carers and other individuals in the healthcare sector
along with several forms of digital communication that are utilised in that sector.
MAIN BODY
TASK
Importance of listening and communication skills in healthcare sector
Effective communication is a primary part of healthcare sector as it allows the staff
members which includes nurses, caregivers and other individuals within the healthcare industry.
As in this occupation it is essential for the employees to forge a relationship with their patients
which is constructed with trust, interaction with patients plays an important part in the results of
their medical treatment. Effective communication between patients and healthcare employees
has huge impact on patient compliance and helps in constructing a positive environment for
better recovery of the patient (Ang, 2017). Healthcare workers require effective communication
skills in order to perform medical treatment on patients with diverse cultural heritage, medical
history, and varying biological factors by the help of collaborative efforts from a team of
medical professionals. Good communication skills allow healthcare workers to give accurate
instructions to patients about tasks which increase their recovery rate (Beatty, 2020). Any
miscommunication during treatment of a patient leads to disastrous outcomes related to the
patient's health.
As the healthcare workers deal with patients and their families on a daily basis, both
verbal and non-verbal communication skills are needed for effective result of medical
treatments. The exact meaning of verbal information such as a piece of writing or spoken
message is amplified by non-verbal communication methods winch include attitude, tone of
speech and expressions of the speaker (Gillett, O'Neill and Bloomfield, 2016). Non-verbal
communication is used by healthcare workers to bring an emotional and human aspect in their
interactions with patients and their families. This kind of communication helps the employees
provide effective treatment to their patients by giving them emotional support during testing of
their lives. Effective non-verbal communication skills reduces possibility of miscommunication
as it adds layer of information through body language.

The healthcare services require staff members to identify the disorders experienced by
their patients in order to give them accurate medical prescription or start effective treatment.
Thus, it is important for nurses or caregivers to have good listening abilities in order to
accurately understand the symptoms described by the patient before their treatment and any
biological changes during the completion of their treatment to (Thussu, 2018) . Effective
listening skills help the healthcare employees understand directions related to medical
procedures effectively and complete various medical operations by effective coordination with
their superiors and colleagues (Hayhoe and Brewer, 2020) . Listening skills play a huge part in
comforting the patient, helping the patient understand their conditions and the reasons for
specific remedies or treatment procedures given to them. This ensures full compliance from the
patient and presence of staff which is ready to listen to their problems, encourages them to
provide the healthcare employees every detail about their medical progress. As the staff is fully
informed about the mental and physical state of the patient, they are able to modify there
treatment for faster recovery.
Literature review: According to the views of Maureen Nokuthula Sibiya,
2017,effective communication skills are a significant element of professional medical and
healthcare practices. This is because effective communication skills help the employees form
strong bonds with their patients which encourages follow the guidelines of the caregiver without
any objection. Effective communication between colleagues in healthcare industry is crucial for
accurate treatment of the patients, and absence of good communication abilities in healthcare
employees results in inaccurate treatment of the patient which sometimes causes irreversible
damage to the patient (Effective Communication in Nursing, 2017) . The author points out
importance of non-verbal communication skills when handling a patient, such skills allow the
employees to build a positive environment necessary for fast recovery of patients where they are
able to reveal all information related to their medical condition and past treatments. Information
received by the healthcare workers due to effective communication with their patients help them
identify medical problems and give them accurate treatment. Listening skills are equally
important for healthcare employees as these skills not only decrease exchange of incorrect data
but helps the caregivers understand exact condition of their patients by listening to them
carefully.

Examples: Effective communication and listening skills are chief component for the success of
a team task. Clear speech is necessary for effective exchange of information between members
of team and maintenance of silence by team members when others are speaking help the team
understand the viewpoints of that individual. Non-verbal communication skills such as positive
attitude and discipline body posture sends signal of confidence and helps the individual present
their ideas in manner which is eye-catching and imprints the information in the psyche of the
receiver for a longer period of time when compared to an interaction which lacks non-verbal
communication (Hovland and Lumsdaine, 2017) . Effective listening skills allow each team
member to effectively understand their roles and functions for achieving team objective. The
ability to listen properly decrease the miscommunication between members of a team and
enhance relationship of team members. Such listening skills are essential for a task which
requires emotional labour from employees during the course of their job.
Modes of written communication skills in healthcare sector and their importance
Written communication is used by healthcare processional to send and receive
information from their colleges. This method of communication is preferred by a large section of
healthcare sectors over direct communication to conduct their daily operations . This is because
written communication provides the employees traceable record of each operation conducted by
their team members attached with expenditures from the patients, procedures conducted and the
effect of treatment on the patient along with their medical history and usage of special equipment
or medicine for the treatment of the patient (Moss, 2017) . Presence of such efficient records
about medical journey of the patient allows the healthcare workers such as caregivers to
precisely understand the medical conditions of the consumer and base their interactions and
operations with the patients around the written information.
The main forms of written communication between healthcare professionals is through
neatly done paperwork related to medical procedures conducted on the patients, medicines
prescribed to the patients, referral letters and discharge letters, healthcare staff makes notes about
progress of patient during their treatment and other medical information related to patients
recovery process. Referral letters are used for informing the staff about requests for particular
treatment, medical opinions, and shared obligation for tending the patient (Siewert and et. al.,
2016) . The healthcare industry uses electronic mail as another mode of written communication.

This form of communication is used by the healthcare sector as it allows them to send messages
quickly with traceable sources.
Written communication skills are important in the healthcare sector as it enables the
employees to keep record of various operations conducted for each patient along with
information about the staff that provided medical services to them. These skills help the
employees take accountability from other members of their team in case of any mistake, as all
the information about each medical case are available to each member (Tavakoly Sany and et.
al., 2018). These skills eliminate miscommunication as the sender and receiver have evidence
about their interaction and are able to confirm the information when in doubt. Effective written
communication skills boost patient 's trust in the staff as written grounds of their procedure is
given to them.
Literature review: According to the author P Vermeir and et. al., 2015, healthcare sector
prefers written communication over in-person communication due to easy accessibility of
written documents this allows the employees to recall previous procedures when needed.
Written information is easily traceable when compared with information gathered through
spoken communication as each written document is assigned to specific individual for particular
task, this feature of written communication makes it more valuable as it can be re-checked with
total accuracy (Communication in healthcare: a narrative review of the literature and practical
recommendations, 2015) . The healthcare sector uses paperwork,referral and discharge letters as
forms of written communication. The information gathered by caregivers through written
communication is easily confirmed which reduces spread of incorrect information and helps
healthcare employees give correct treatment and medical prescriptions to their patients.
Examples: Electronic mail is used by teams during group projects as a mode of written
communication to exchange information quickly to many number of people. The messages sent
through e-mails can be accessed again and again to confirm information and decrease
miscommunication between team members (Thussu, 2018). The task of tracing weak link of the
content is easier as the origin of inaccurate or irrelevant information is easily determined.
Increase in written communication enables the members of the team to implement their
presentation strategy effectively as each member has predefined function which can be checked
through written records.

CONCLUSION
From the above report it is determined that verbal and non-verbal communication
skills play a significant role in effective functioning various operations in the healthcare sector.
Effective communication and listening skills help caregivers understand the needs of their
patients and conduct medical treatment in collaborative manner. Written communication skills
are used by healthcare workers to keep traceable record of their patients and helps them access
past information about the patient.

REFERENCES
Ang, 2017. Internet habit strength and online communication: Exploring gender
differences. Computers in Human Behavior, 66. pp.1-6.
Beatty, 2020. Measures of instructional communication. In Communication Research
Measures (pp. 7-20). Routledge.
Gillett, O'Neill and Bloomfield, 2016. Factors influencing the development of end-of-life
communication skills: a focus group study of nursing and medical students. Nurse
education today, 36. pp.395-400.
Hayhoe and Brewer, 2020. A research primer for technical communication: Methods, exemplars,
and analyses. Routledge.
Hovland and Lumsdaine, 2017. Experiments on mass communication. Princeton University
Press.
Moss, 2017. Communication skills in health and social care. Sage.
Siewert and et. al., 2016. Impact of communication errors in radiology on patient care, customer
satisfaction, and work-flow efficiency. American Journal of Roentgenology, 206(3).
pp.573-579.
Tavakoly Sany and et. al., 2018. Health providers’ communication skills training affects
hypertension outcomes. Medical teacher, 40(2). pp.154-163.
Thussu, 2018. International communication: Continuity and change. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Online:
Effective Communication in Nursing, 2017, [online] Available through; <
https://www.intechopen.com/books/nursing/effective-communication-in-nursing>
Communication in healthcare: a narrative review of the literature and practical
recommendations, 2015, [online] Available through;
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4758389/>