Healthcare Communication and Ethnic Minorities: UK Elderly Patients

This report delves into the critical aspects of healthcare communication, specifically focusing on the experiences of elderly patients from ethnic minority groups within the United Kingdom. It examines the nuances of communication between healthcare professionals and patients, highlighting the significance of effective dialogue in fostering positive health outcomes. The report addresses the challenges of language barriers, cultural differences, and potential discrimination that can hinder effective communication. It reviews existing literature to understand the impact of these obstacles on patient care and satisfaction. The research also explores various communication methods and strategies, including the use of interpreters, culturally sensitive approaches, and the importance of empathy and respect. Furthermore, the report identifies gaps in current research and proposes potential areas for future investigation, such as tailored interventions and policy development to improve healthcare access and quality for all patients. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of healthcare communication for providing quality care and proper treatment for all.

Running head: HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATION
HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATION WITH ETHNIC MINORITY PATIENTS IN
THE UK: EXPERIENCES OF OLDER PEOPLE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

2
HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATION
Table of contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................................3
Aim & objective........................................................................................................................3
Communication in healthcare....................................................................................................4
Communication methods in healthcare.....................................................................................6
Cross culture communication obstacles in healthcare...............................................................7
Potential research focus.............................................................................................................8
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................9
Bibliography............................................................................................................................10

3
HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATION
Introduction
Healthcare communication can be defined as the way of communication between
doctors or health care professionals and patients regarding health and disease (National
Communication Association 2020). There are several motives to establish healthcare
communication that include increasing the knowledge of the patients and everyone regarding
various health issues, make them aware of the situations thus, imparting health literacy in
them (Chichirez and Purcărea 2018). A proper healthcare communication can change
perspective and behaviour of people towards several health issues treated as social and
traditional evils. The aim of healthcare communication is to enlighten everyone belonging to
a communication to gain knowledge about a disease and healthy practices. The healthcare
communication in the United Kingdom is very well received by the inhabitants. However,
there are huge ethnic minority groups who reside in the United Kingdom. It was seen that the
conception and perception of effective healthcare communication in the United Kingdom
among the ethnic minority group vary from one community to another. Though the young
and middle aged people understand and acknowledge the presence of healthcare
communication, however the older people often fail to understand the system. This often
leads to various side effects (Psoinos et al. 2011). This research will discuss the relationship
between healthcare communication and its impact on the elderly patients belonging to ethnic
minority groups in the United Kingdom.
Aim & objective
The aim of this research is to find and evaluate the relationship between healthcare
communication and the impact it exerts on the elderly patients belonging to an ethnic
minority group in the United Kingdom. The research is also conducted to understand the

4
HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATION
experiences, which the older people had communicating with various healthcare
professionals.
Communication in healthcare
As mentioned above, healthcare communication is a crucial factor that should be
maintained by every healthcare professional working healthcare facility. However, there are a
few issues that often jeopardize an effective and proper communication between the
healthcare professionals and elder patients belonging to ethnic minority groups in the United
Kingdom. The most predominant issue that affect the relationship is language barriers
(Hussey 2012). The other issues include inadequate and uninformed consent taken from the
patient belonging to a ethnic minority, unsympathetic responses from the healthcare
professionals, wrong information provided to the patients and their families and cultural
incompetency (Taran 2011).
Likupe (2014) conducted a review study to find out and deduce the way by which, the
communication between healthcare professionals and patients from ethnic minority groups
can be improved. The authors found that the majority of the patients complained of issues
such as the professionals did not invest much time in them, they did not make them
understand about their disease, they had almost no empathy towards them and some even
complained of abuse. Another huge problem is the language barrier. The United Kingdom is
home for people belonging to various ethnicities and countries such as Asian countries and
African countries (GOV.uk 2020). They all have different languages and numerous people
belonging to these ethnicities do not know English, which makes it a bigger problem to
establish healthcare related conversation between healthcare professionals and patients. The
researchers also found out that because of language problem various things such as consent
for initiation of the treatment creates confusion. The authors also provided a few ways to

5
HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATION
overcome communication barriers, which include development programmes for nurses,
improved availability of translator and growing cultural as well as traditional competencies to
support the older patients and provide them with quality care. The negative societal notions
against the ethnic minorities should be also removed from the community of nurses. The
nurses should also adopt a holistic approach while treating the older patients belonging to
ethnic minorities, which would also calm the patients down and provide them a homely
atmosphere. The authors concluded that it is very important for the nurses to increase their
cultural competencies as the population of the United Kingdom is increasing due to
immigration and as a result, number of older people from these ethnic minority groups are
also increasing. Therefore, it would help them to provide quality care.
Another research was conducted to understand the experiences older patients had in
hospitals while they were admitted in there. The authors state that, as there is an increase in
the number of older patients suffering from various conditions and chronic illnesses lately
there is also an increased requirement for healthcare facilities. The United Kingdom is one
such place containing people from all across the world. They belong to the ethnic minority
community in the United Kingdom. The researchers collected data from nine such older
patients to identify their experiences while residing in the hospitals. On interviewing the
selected nine patients, there were a few revelations that came out. It included the patients
complaining about the longer waiting time they had to invest in before consulting the doctor
and getting admitted to the hospitals, lack of proper communication with the healthcare
professionals who mostly avoided communication with them and never provided them proper
information about anything. The authors concluded from the research that interpersonal
healthcare communication is very much required to make the patients involved in the due
course of treatment and make them feel at ease (Andersson, Burman and Skär 2011).

6
HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATION
Another review study was conducted to find the experiences of older patients
belonging to ethnic minority communities in communicating with healthcare professional.
The researchers chose fifty seven literature papers from various internet databases and
evaluated the experiences the patients had while conversing with the healthcare professionals.
The result showed three outcomes which include positive experience, negative experience
and communication outcomes. The patients who had positive experiences informed about the
relational and technical skills the doctors and medical professionals exhibited. The patients
who had negative experiences complained about utter disrespect shown to them by the
healthcare professionals, experienced stress because of the little time the professionals
invested on them and also felt helpless during the stay in hospital. They also complained of
the difference in language, which acted as a barrier and absence of any interpersonal teams in
most of the healthcare facilities. They faced discrimination based on tradition, culture and
sexuality and often faced abuse in a way or other. Their values were faced with criticism
regarding their values and culture as well. The authors also stated that there was a huge
literature gap in researches regarding this topic. Therefore, they concluded that there is a
noted requirement for more studies to be conducted on healthcare communication and its
cultural aspect. The authors also provided a framework that can be utilised in implementing
various healthcare communication strategies (Rocque and Leanza 2015).
Communication methods in healthcare
National Institute of Aging (2020) states that good communication plays a very
important role in healing a patient. Researches have also revealed that effective healthcare
communication between doctors or healthcare professionals and older patients have been
proved beneficial as the patients are seen to be more adherent to the treatment, the treatment
provides better outcomes and the patients also express greater satisfaction. It also states that
effective communication can lead to successful prevention of medical errors, leads to better

7
HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATION
health outcomes and also strengthen the relationship between healthcare professionals and the
patients.
As it is already mentioned in the previous sections the problems faced by older
patients belonging from ethnic minority communities face varied problems because of
language issues, discrimination and negligence. However, these problems can be solved by
following a few steps. The healthcare professionals should use proper form of address while
speaking to the older patients to show them respect and dignity. They should also work and
communicate with the patients so that the patients get comfortable while having health
related conversation. It is also suggested that rushing tom find medical information and
history of the patients should also be avoided. The older patients belonging to ethnic minority
groups have language problems, so the healthcare professionals should invest time on the
patients talking slowly to make them understand everything. Time should also be invested
patiently before initiating the treatment utilizing the time to evaluate the condition and their
cultural beliefs to so that the treatment may proceed without affecting their cultural beliefs.
Empathy should be shown towards the patients according to the emotions they are
expressing. These processes can be followed to improve the relationship between medical
professionals and patients by healthcare communication (Valero-Garcés 2014).
Cross culture communication obstacles in healthcare
Taylor, Nicolle and Maguire (2013) conducted a study to find the perception of the
healthcare professionals for taking care of older patients belonging from ethnic minority
communities with very weak or no skills of conversing in English. The authors conducted an
interview of 34 healthcare professionals across the United Kingdom to identify the barriers
they faced while treating older patients belonging from the ethnic minority communities. The
researchers identified five major barriers, which included language problems, lack of

8
HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATION
understanding about the medical system, low literacy rate, gender inequality and different
health beliefs and these problems lead the older patients to retain various necessary
information. The authors concluded the paper by recommending ways in which this
healthcare communication can be done appropriately for providing quality care to the
patients. The authors’ recommendations include promoting learning of English for the
advantages of availing all the services in the United Kingdom. The recruitment of translators
in the hospitals for facilitating the healthcare communication between the older people
belonging from ethnic minorities and patients is also recommended by the researchers.
Another research was conducted to identify the problems in healthcare
communication between healthcare professionals and patients and the ways it can be
improved. The researchers mention the importance and the dire requirement of appropriate
healthcare communication to improve the patient’s condition and the quality of care. The
researchers in this paper introduced a model named LEARN based on cultural competence.
LEARN stands for Listen, Explain, Acknowledge, Recommend and Negotiate. The authors
suggested the healthcare professionals to maintain and follow all these points to make the
patients comfortable and be at ease. Maintaining these things would also lead the older
patients to open up more about their conditions and in much more detail. The authors gave
stress on non-verbal communication, which refers to the facial expression and body language
during talking to a patient to be more polite and empathetic to understand about then] patients
in great detail. The authors also mentioned about the presence of interpreters in healthcare
facilities to easen up the process of healthcare communication between healthcare
professionals and patients belonging from ethnic minority groups (Ladha et al. 2018).
Potential research focus
It was found while researching for this study, that there is a huge literature gap
regarding the healthcare communication between older patients belonging from ethnic

9
HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATION
minority in the United Kingdom and the healthcare professionals. The observed gap in the
literature is most predominant in the area of recommendations that might help the
professionals to overcome this issue. There are a few papers talking about the
recommendations that can remove the problem however, more tailored design plans are
required for implementing them in the communication system. There is also another gap in
the designing new health policies to support the people from ethnic minority communities in
the United Kingdom.
Conclusion
Thus, to conclude the paper it can be stated that healthcare communication is an
extremely important aspect of healthcare and needs strong establishment in the healthcare
system so that everyone gets quality care and proper care however, there are quite a few
barriers in the way of establishing a relationship between healthcare communication and its
impact on the elderly patients belonging to ethnic minority groups in the United Kingdom.
The issues such as language barriers and discrimination plays the key antagonistic roles in the
unestablishment of the healthcare communication which can be removed by maintaining
various rules and newer government policies are also required to do so.

10
HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATION
Bibliography
Andersson, L., Burman, M. and Skär, L., 2011. Experiences of caretime during
hospitalization in a medical ward: older patients’ perspective. Scandinavian journal of caring
sciences, 25(4), pp.646-652.
Chichirez, C.M. and Purcărea, V.L., 2018. Interpersonal communication in
healthcare. Journal of medicine and life, 11(2), p.119.
Constand, M.K., MacDermid, J.C., Dal Bello-Haas, V. and Law, M., 2014. Scoping review
of patient-centered care approaches in healthcare. BMC health services research, 14(1),
p.271.
D’Agostino, T.A., Atkinson, T.M., Latella, L.E., Rogers, M., Morrissey, D., DeRosa, A.P.
and Parker, P.A., 2017. Promoting patient participation in healthcare interactions through
communication skills training: a systematic review. Patient education and
counseling, 100(7), pp.1247-1257.
Essig, S., Steiner, C., Kühne, T., Kremens, B., Langewitz, W. and Kiss, A., 2019.
Communication Skills Training for Professionals Working with Adolescent Patients with
Cancer Based on Participants' Needs: A Pilot. Journal of adolescent and young adult
oncology, 8(3), pp.354-362.
Foronda, C., MacWilliams, B. and McArthur, E., 2016. Interprofessional communication in
healthcare: An integrative review. Nurse education in practice, 19, pp.36-40. Retrieved from:
GOV.uk, 2020. Regional Ethnic Diversity. [online] Ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk.
Available at: <https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-
ethnicity/national-and-regional-populations/regional-ethnic-diversity/latest#main-facts-and-
figures> [Accessed 7 April 2020].

11
HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATION
Heard, R., O’Halloran, R. and McKinley, K., 2017. Communication partner training for
health care professionals in an inpatient rehabilitation setting: A parallel randomised
trial. International journal of speech-language pathology, 19(3), pp.277-286. Retrieved from:
Hussey, N., 2012. The language barrier: the overlooked challenge to equitable health care:
Emerging Public Health Practitioner Awards. South African health review, 2012(2012/2013),
pp.189-195.
Ladha, T., Zubairi, M., Hunter, A., Audcent, T. and Johnstone, J., 2018. Cross-cultural
communication: Tools for working with families and children. Paediatrics & child
health, 23(1), pp.66-69.
Likupe, G., 2014. Communicating with older ethnic minority patients. Nursing
standard, 28(40).
McCorry, L. and Mason, J., 2019. Communication skills for the healthcare professional.
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Meuter, R.F., Gallois, C., Segalowitz, N.S., Ryder, A.G. and Hocking, J., 2015. Overcoming
language barriers in healthcare: a protocol for investigating safe and effective communication
when patients or clinicians use a second language. BMC health services research, 15(1),
p.371.
Moore, P.M., Rivera, S., Bravo‐Soto, G.A., Olivares, C. and Lawrie, T.A., 2018.
Communication skills training for healthcare professionals working with people who have
cancer. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (7).
National Communication Association, 2020. What Is Communication?. [online] National
Communication Association.

12
HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATION
O'Brien, R., 2019. The development of a communication skills training intervention for
healthcare professionals caring for people with dementia in the acute hospital setting: an
applied conversation analytic study (Doctoral dissertation, University of Nottingham).
O'Halloran, R., Worrall, L. and Hickson, L., 2015. Environmental factors that influence
communication between patients and their healthcare providers in acute hospital stroke units:
an observational study. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders,
pp.1-18.
Psoinos, M., Hatzidimitriadou, E., Butler, C. and Barn, R., 2011. Ethnic monitoring in
healthcare services in the UK as a mechanism to address health disparities: a narrative
review.
Roberts, L., Cornell, C., Bostrom, M., Goldsmith, S., Ologhobo, T., Roberts, T. and Robbins,
L., 2019. EMPOWERING OLDER ADULTS IN HEALTHCARE SETTINGS:
COMMUNICATION SKILLS TRAINING FOR SURGICAL RESIDENTS. Innovation in
Aging, 3(Supplement_1), pp.S298-S298.
Rocque, R. and Leanza, Y., 2015. A systematic review of patients’ experiences in
communicating with primary care physicians: intercultural encounters and a balance between
vulnerability and integrity. PloS one, 10(10).
Shaw, M.L., 2018. Effective Communication Skills for Healthcare Workers. Retrieved from:
Taran, S., 2011. An examination of the factors contributing to poor communication outside
the physician-patient sphere. McGill Journal of Medicine: MJM, 13(1).
Taylor, S.P., Nicolle, C. and Maguire, M., 2013. Cross-cultural communication barriers in
health care. Nursing Standard (Through 2013), 27(31), p.35. Valero-Garcés, C.,