Effective Communication in Healthcare: Features, Barriers, and Theory

This essay examines the crucial role of communication within healthcare settings. It highlights the features of effective communication, such as verbal and non-verbal skills, and emphasizes their importance in building strong patient-provider relationships and fostering a positive work environment. The essay delves into various communication barriers, including psychological, physical, and language-related obstacles, and explores strategies to overcome them, such as active listening and clear messaging. Furthermore, the essay introduces theoretical concepts like humanistic theory to improve patient care and enhance the overall healthcare experience. Finally, the essay concludes by underscoring the significance of effective communication in enhancing patient outcomes, reducing medical errors, and increasing job satisfaction among healthcare professionals. The essay emphasizes the importance of adapting communication strategies to address diverse patient needs and create a more transparent and efficient healthcare system.

Importance of communication
in health care settings
Looking at features of effective
communication, barriers and
theory
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INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
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INTRODUCTION
Effective communication is termed as possible speech or other form of methods of relying
information as to communicate information for message effective communication in healthcare
settings. Communication is essentially important as it allows in creating better working
environment and develops more openness and transparency. With the help of effective
communication health care providers can effectively protect patients and can further conduct
their day-to-day operations with more efficiency (Beattie, Larkin and Cawley, 2021). With the
assistance of efficient methods of communication in healthcare settings reduction in chances of
medical errors can be assured. Communication play important role in healthcare as it helps in
providing effective and transparent information through which experience of patient can be
enhanced. It also helps in reducing complaints, increases self-confidence and helps in developing
professional standing while reducing stress and enhancing job satisfaction. Present report is an
essay which is conducted on the importance of communication in healthcare settings. This report
includes features of effective communication along with its barriers and theories of
communication through which barriers of communication can be overcome in effective manner.
MAIN BODY
Effective communication play important role in healthcare and social care situations, as it
involves is establishing human connection with the patients or co-workers. With the help of
different communication tools that further facilitate towards offering effective care proper care to
patients can be provided. In addition to this it has been underlined that communication is playing
important role in terms of providing patients with the empathy and compassion that they need for
their recovery journey.
Key features of effective communication
It has been underlined that in social care and health care situation with the help of effective
communication effectiveness of treatment therapy and health promotion can be facilitated in
effective manner (Cipollina and Sanchez, 2021). It is vital to possess effective interpersonal
communication skill and knowledge on the importance of communication in order to exchange
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information, feeling, thoughts among people. Communication provides and benefit in terms of
understanding patient experiences. Thus, it is essential to have different types of communication
skill in health and social care situations in order to apply different type of communication
practices to communicate during stressful situation. In this both verbal and non verbal
communication play essential role that play important and initial role in offering care to
individual.
Theoretical concepts with regard to communication in Health and Social Care settings
It has been evaluated that health and social care department division comprises of various
kinds of service users. In order to be a good care provider, it is basic that professionals carry out
a few kinds of correspondence methods through experience, abilities and knowledge. In fact,
numerous scholars like B.F Skinner, Abraham Maslow, and Carl Roger have made life-time
investigations of the manner in which this methodology can be gainful to patient consideration.
Likewise, through an assessment of attributes dependent on a humanistic conduct investigation
of activities, individuals can likewise be observed and their medical care arrangement improved,
by approaching all individuals with deference through being delicate and kind. This assists with
building commonly helpful connections among patient and carer and between various medical
services experts (Zhao and et. al., 2021). Furthermore, it has been identified that with the help of
humanistic theory effective, efficient and polite communication with patients can be made that
will further help in building nourished individual respect. This theory helps individuals in health
and social care to undertake efficient conversation and offer high level of care
Knowledge of Windows applications, basic computer function and basic computer function and
internet searches
It essential to have understanding of fundamental computer skills such as, basic computer
function, windows application and internet searches. With the help of having this skill individual
can enhance its communication ability. Understanding the different sorts of essential computer
skill will assist you with bettering comprehend what abilities might be needed for field. In
addition to this, it is essential through which individual can perform key assignments on a
computer. This can incorporate understanding certain product, applications, projects, instruments
and then some. Computer skill fall into two classifications: programming and equipment. Having
good computer skills implies that to a play out the undertakings that contending competitors will
be unable to. This information can bring about you getting recruited over rivals
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Barriers to communication
It has been evaluated that there are some certain form of potential barriers that exist in
health and social care, these barriers are in the form of psychological barrier, physical barrier,
communication barriers, cultural and language barriers, delay in receiving appropriate and
accurate information on message, lack of communication measures, financial burden and more
(Downing, 2021). These barriers effect excess to provide desirable assistance to patient that
affect their overall care journey. These barriers are required to be effectively overcome in an
effective manner with the help of strategies in order to provide and improve health care
accessibility to individuals.
Among the entire above barrier it has been identified that communication is one of the most
adverse barrier that can affect individual care. It has been evaluated that due to poor
communication in healthcare there is significant reduction in quality of care wastage of
resources, poor patient experiences and outcomes, increase in healthcare cost and dissatisfaction
among staff. Furthermore, according to the analysis it has been determined that communication
failure mainly lead towards negative impact upon patient as well as staff satisfaction (Reblora
and et. al., 2021). It is essential to overcome the barrier in effective manner in order to enhance
their efficiency in health and social care. According to my own experience it has been identified
by me that due to ineffective communication wastage of resources and reduction in quality of
care to patient is being experienced as ineffective communication affected transfer of
communication among staff member that lead towards affecting patient outcome and quality of
care. It has been identified that in health care misinterpretation is the major barrier of
communication that can have adverse impact upon operations.
Techniques to overcome the barrier of misinterpretation
 In order to overcome the barrier of misinterpretation it is essential to repeat the message
or instructions. In addition to this, by reducing distractions and taking advantage of email
with clear message this barrier can be overcome in effective manner.
 Recognize that passive hearing and active listening are not the same. Engage with the
verbal/nonverbal feedback of others, and adjust your message to facilitate greater
understanding.
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Communication play important role in health and social care situations or settings. Thus,
it is essential to overcome the above identified barrier of communication in order to facilitate
effective communication, as due to this barrier there is adverse impact upon the quality of
patience along with the care that is being provided to them. In this with the help of effective
communication strategies exchange of information among staff members can be facilitated in
effective manner. In this, strategy is verbal non verbal and other form of communication
measures that effectively helps in communicating information and essential information with
other person or group of individual (Nilsen, 2021). In this nonverbal communication and oral
communication such as phone call, speaking and video chatting is included. Verbal
communication also includes email, letters and text. It is one of the most effective
communication skills which is essential to be processed by each and every individual in health
and social care in order to make sure that information is being transferred in effective manner. In
addition to this nonverbal communication is also an effective method that helps in transferring
information. It includes facial expression, visual cues and body language. It is essential for
individuals in care setting to have proper understanding of nonverbal communication.
Furthermore, visual communication will also effective that include illustration, info graphic and
text. This method can be effectively adopted in order to communicate information in effective
method.
Thus according to the analysis it has been identified that with the help of these communication
techniques in-effective form of communication barrier can be overcome in effective manner.
These techniques will help in providing efficient care to patients that further helps in increasing
their experience level (Raphael, Winter and Berry, 2021). These strategies also help in enhancing
overall level of quality of care that has been provided to them, as these methods helps in
facilitating information among staff in effective manner that helps in mitigating any form of risk
of negligence of information. It has been identified that with the help of these communication
techniques the barrier can be overcome in a well defined and effective manner.
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CONCLUSION
According to the above mentioned report it has been identified that, communication in
health care settings play important role as with the help of this day- to- day operations can be
conducted in more efficient manner. This report states that there are different type of benefits of
effective communication such as increase in nurse’s self-confidence, reduction in complaints
high professional standing, less stress and more job satisfaction. Furthermore, this report also
state that there are different type of methods through which barriers of communication can be
overcome such as, face-to-face communication, streamline communication channel and
encouraging mobile collaboration for effective communication among healthcare professionals.
However in this report it has been stated that barriers of effective communication in healthcare is
lack of privacy, ineffective methods of communication and more. However with the help of
communication techniques and strategies barriers of communication such as lack of
communication, source difference in meaning between sender and receiver, information overload
can be overcome in effective manner, through which operations in healthcare settings can be
undertaken in more effective manner with the help of efficient communication measures.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Beattie, F., Kerr, L., Larkin, J. and Cawley, D., 2021. The components of personal passports for
people living with dementia in an acute healthcare setting: An integrative review. Journal
of Clinical Nursing.
Cipollina, R. and Sanchez, D.T., 2021. Identity cues influence sexual minorities’ anticipated
treatment and disclosure intentions in healthcare settings: Exploring a multiple pathway
model. Journal of Health Psychology, p.1359105321995984.
Downing, B.T., 2021. Community/liaison interpreting in healthcare settings. The Routledge
Handbook of Translation and Health, p.165.
Meier, S., Kasting, M.L., Liu, S.S. and DeMaria, A.L., 2021. Shared decision-making among
non-physician healthcare professionals: Enhancing patient involvement in women’s
reproductive health in community healthcare settings. Patient Education and Counseling.
Nilsen, A.B., 2021. Interpreter-mediated communication with children in healthcare settings. The
Routledge Handbook of Translation and Health, p.285.
Raphael, J., Winter, R. and Berry, K., 2021. Adapting practice in mental healthcare settings
during the COVID-19 pandemic and other contagions: systematic review. BJPsych
open, 7(2).
Reblora, J.M and et. al., 2021. “The same but different” Triaging in primary healthcare settings:
A focused ethnography study. Collegian, 28(1), pp.35-41.
Zhao, Y and et. al., 2021. Language barriers to healthcare for linguistic minorities: The case of
second language-specific health communication anxiety. Health communication, 36(3),
pp.334-346.
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