Active practice of clinical matters has many aspects in which vital information must be communicated accurately.  When healthcare providers are not relaying information effectively, the patient’s safety is placed at an awful risk due to misinterpretation of data. During his stay at the hospital, a patient interacts with many staff members in the hospital, such as nurses, technicians, physicians among others. Therefore, effective communication techniques in a healthcare facility are fundamental.

Communication techniques used to promote safety within the healthcare facility

Leaders in medicine and nursing should use various initiatives for the development of a formidable and not competitive agenda that benefit patient care (Boynton, P. 2018).  This is done primarily by putting more attention to areas where their implementation is more likely to lead to more significant improvements for the patient. Generally, most healthcare providers have a characteristic of the desire to learn and the one shared value that is to meet the need of the patient, and this makes it easy for hospital administrators to have a well effective plan of communication.

The Crew Resources Management has been applied in several healthcare environments such as in labor and delivery, operating room and the emergency room. Medical application of the CRM needs training approaches to reflect the human factors which mostly lead to errors. Through the implementation of CRM, the Regional Hospital connected with US air force developed and used a safety program called Medical Team Management that was concerned with making reports to determine the effects of patient safety on matters of medical error reporting. Reports show that since the introduction of Medical Team Management, there has been a significant improvement s in the number of statements made and a considerable decline in the severity of accidents (Sedam, M. W. 2015).

Communication techniques, therefore, involve establishing a formidable culture to support communication and team collaboration. The most critical aspect is organizational commitment and readiness to address the situation. The point should be the change of behavioral patterns and their attitude toward the patient. Solving problems that hinder communication, information exchange, and obligation for patient care, are the main aspects of any program for patient’s safety maintenance. Hospital administrators must, therefore, set the record straight by forming behavioral standards that work in line with the code of conduct supported by policy and culture

Recognition and self-awareness are another technique, and healthcare institutions must gauge the context and impacts of behaviors to realize the potential opportunities for change and improvements. Some hospital institutions fear to address the problem due to the fear of alienating a surgeon or staff member. However, there is a growing workforce shortage, staff retention, hospital reputation, and patient safety and an organization can no longer take a passive approach to this situation.

Formulating and implementation of a standard set of behavior policies and procedures are very important because it enhances cooperation and collaboration. Leaders should encourage dialogue, collaborative interactions and creating a disciplinary board or task forces that solve issues that frequently arise. The healthcare organization needs to help staff members to report disruptive behaviors, and address issues of confidentiality shared feelings and any fear of retaliation. Reporting mechanism should be made available and accessible. Methods of reporting may include taking the incident to a superior, writing the incident report and using the suggestion boxes or even reporting directly to the task force.

A focused team training plan is also of a particular value. Creating an environment of trust and mutual respect, openness, accountability, shared decision making, situational awareness, and CRM pieces of training have led to significant improvements to effective communication in a healthcare facility.

Having a clinical champion that readily promotes appropriate behavior, communication and teamwork can significantly improve performance, and these clinical adopters may come from executive positions or even voluntary interests and zeal of an employee. It has been noted that having a nurse or a physician, taken through joint training helps to improve cooperation in various departments.

Ways in which communication aids in providing patient care

Communication helps in the performance of accurate, consistent and easy nursing operations. It ensures both satisfaction of the patients and the safety of the health professional. In cases where the healthcare providers are not trained well in communication skills, they face a lot of challenges that may even affect their personal lives.

Good communication also improves the quality of care provided, which is considered as a right and an excellent prerequisite for building a bona fide relationship between patients and nurses in a hospital facility (Mitchell, G. 2014). Effective communication is therefore vital in the field of healthcare environments and its interventions such as treatment, therapy, rehabilitation, education, and health promotions.

Through communication, the sick shares experiences and worries to the health practitioner and assist them in making a correct finding. On the other hand, the doctor gets the root course of the problem and explains the nature of the disease with treatment and rehabilitation plans. Effective communication techniques, therefore, demand a clear conception of the patient and concerns they express. It needs capacity and earnest intention of the healthcare provider to understand the language of the patient.

References

Sedam, M. W. (2015). Team Communication: The Social Identity Approach to Collaboration. doi:10.21236/ad1009285

Mitchell, G. (2014). Communication Skills for Nursing Practice McCabe Catherine and Timmins Fiona Communication Skills for Nursing Practice 280pp £22.99 Palgrave Macmillan 9780230369207 0230369200. Cancer Nursing Practice, 13(6), 10-10. doi:10.7748/cnp.13.6.10. s11

Boynton, P. (2018). Improving communication with parents who have lost a baby. Practice Nursing, 29(11), 550-551. doi:10.12968/pnur.2018.29.11.550