Improving Communication among Healthcare Professionals - Term Paper Example

Effective Communication By Name Class Professor University/Institution City, State Date Effective Communication The healthcare environment’s realities pose immense challenges for the professional registered nurses who are required to offer safe and quality care. Usually, ineffective communication is acknowledged as a vital contributing factor in a majority of the inadvertent patient harm and medical errors. In addition to the fact that the adverse events cause emotional and physical harm to patients and families, they are financially costly. In the present day, healthcare is evermore diverse and complex. Hence, improving communication among all healthcare professionals has immense power in supporting safe and quality patient care delivery. Understanding effective communication In a majority of the care models, nurses increasingly depend on unlicensed assistive employees as healthcare team members. However, the nurses remain responsible for outcomes regardless of the fact that they are required to delegate some level of direct care to unlicensed personnel. Communication between the unlicensed personnel and registered nurses might be threatened by poor quality information which is unclear and untimely. For there to be effective communication, there is a need for mindful communication, information quality, as well as mutual trust in all care contexts should be promoted (Jones & Groom, 2012). In the healthcare sector, effective communication entails reaching a shared comprehension of a certain situation as well as a common course of action. To achieve this, there is a need for a wide array of generic communication skills, ranging from listening to negotiation, to assertiveness and goal setting, and the ability to apply the generic skills in several situations and contexts (Odyssey Productions Llc. & Insight Media (Firm), 2007). Effective communication also necessitates that teams and individuals should have access to timely and adequate information required to carry out their roles appropriately and effectively. Using jargon and technical terms, abbreviations and acronyms, and diagrams in communication greatly influences the manner in which information is shared; hence, communication effectiveness. It is highly advisable that healthcare professionals should adhere to the 5 effective communication standards so as to facilitate improvements as far as information exchange between the professionals is concerned; communication should be complete in that is should have answers to all questions to a satisfactory level for all those participating in the information exchange (National Center For The Study Of Adult Learning And Literacy (U.S.), Productive Media, Inc. & Harvard School Of Public Health, 2000). It should be concise in that words expressions should be omitted or shortened. Unnecessary repetitions should be avoided and only relevant statements included. Concreteness involves ensuring that the words actually mean as they say; they should be considered and specific. Accurate figures and facts should be given. The communication should be clear in that familiar, conversational, and short words should be used in constructing understandable and effective messages. Finally, it should be accurate in that the language level should be apt for the particular occasion. Ambiguous jargon and patronizing or discriminatory expressions should be avoided (Tan, 2009). There are many factors in healthcare that can influence effective communication. These include individual characteristics and abilities, systemic factors and team behaviors, as well as the lack of an organization to support a safety culture. Hugman (2009) suggests that improving communication needs a detailed setting and context understanding in relation to patient care delivery. Moreover, the institution should be dedicated to promote a safety culture and improve quality, including supporting team-based care delivery. Sustainable improvements aimed at effective communication should focus on synchronizing efforts from the 3 most vital levels; team, individual, and organization. Effective communication, and the provision of safe and quality care The effective communication between the professionals’ teams highly determines safe and quality outcomes. Hence, there is a great need for the right kind of communication. Effective communication, quality care, and safe care are linked inextricably. In case there is untimely and unclear information, effective communication is hindered and under such conditions, the delivered care may be missed or inappropriate, and this leads to adverse outcomes. In healthcare institutions invest on improving communication, the setting can benefit from improved safety, improved patient outcomes and quality of care, reduced patient length of stay, improved family and patient satisfaction, and enhanced job satisfaction and staff morale (Krautscheid, 2008). The healthcare system in the United States is fragmented with caregivers, families, and patients forced to find the way in an increasingly complicated system that is full of inefficiencies. If care is not coordinated, there results are serious complications that include preventable hospital readmissions, medication errors, and unnecessary suffering and pain for patients. There is also a great concern for higher costs. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimates that the efforts for care coordination can total to 240 billion dollars in health savings yearly (Hasse, 2013). Healthcare delivery involves data collection, transforming the data into information, storing the information and data, and information dissemination. The present day healthcare a lot of the information management is majorly written and oral and occurs between the family of the patient, patient, and team members. The more the patient care is family- or patient-centered, the more necessary the communication between the family and patient so as to understand the perspective of the patient and ensure that the patient is personally involved in the treatment. A majority of the information that connects poor communication between the healthcare professionals with critical patient outcomes largely emerges from sentinel events’ retrospective analysis as well as root cause analysis. The American Joint Commission reported that the principal root cause of more than seventy percent of the sentinel events was lack of effective communication. There is a noticeable trend indicating ineffective communication between providers of healthcare. This is a vital risk factor for critical patient events. Evidence indicates that efforts to better communication by using structured strategies and tools has higher chances of optimizing patient outcomes (Webb, 2011). If healthcare professionals rely on effective communication, healthcare is transformed. Communication pitfalls which exaggerate information decay as well as a information loss and salience set up a detrimental cascade where poor information quality results to ineffective delegation. Moreover, there are results of poorer safety outcomes and missed care. So as to avoid the critical effects associated with ineffective communication, healthcare professionals should highly regard trusting relationships and mindfulness that are highly effective in addressing communication and poor information quality barriers, and promotes the conditions for proper communication in delegation processes (Dunhill, Elliott & Shaw, 2010). There is a great need for nurses to practice mindful awareness in relation to the time-sensitive nature and saliency of the immense information that they are required to communicate and manage. Nurses should be aware that they are specially positioned to assess often overwhelming, ever-changing amount of information that is relevant to patient care. A registered nurse’s ability of stacking, filtering, and communicating this information is greatly hinged on experience, knowledge, as well as a mindful presence. Having noted how critical the issue of effective communication is in healthcare, the aim of the National Quality Strategy is promoting effective care coordination and communication across the system through concentrating on three goals. The first is improving the quality of communications and care transitions across care settings. The second is improving the life quality for patients suffering from disability and chronic illnesses through adhering to an updated care plan that addresses and anticipates symptom and pain management, functional status, and psychosocial needs. Finally, establishing shared accountability as well as integrating healthcare and community systems so as to improve care quality and minimize health disparities (Chassin, 2013). Conclusion From the foregoing discussion, it has been established that ineffective communication is frequently the most cited category of sentinel events’ root causes. On the other hand, effective communication that is unambiguous, complete, accurate, timely, and understood by recipients minimizes errors and leads to better patient safety can quality care. Apart from effective communication between healthcare professionals, it should also exist between the provider and patients. This is equally critical to the quality and safety of care. Noteworthy, however, this communication can be hindered by language differences, low health literacy, and cultural differences. Hence, evidence-based practices which minimize these barriers should be integrated into, as opposed to just being added, to processes in healthcare. It has been established that teamwork and effective communication are essential in the delivery of safe and high quality patient care (Berry, 2007). Usually, inadvertent patient harm results a lot from communication failures. Medical care complexity in addition to the inherent human performance limitations denote the need for nurses having standardized communication tools, share common language for alerting team members of unsafe situations, and create environments where professionals can express and speak up their concerns. Reference list Berry, D. (2007). Health communication theory and practice. Maidenhead, Open University Press. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10197045. Chassin, M. (2013). “Improving the Quality of Health Care: What's Taking So Long?” Health Affairs, vol. 32, no.10 pp. 1761-1765, doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0809 Dunhill, A., Elliott, B., & Shaw, A. (2010). Effective Communication and Engagement with Children and Young People, their Families and Carers. Exeter, Learning Matters Ltd. http://public.eblib.com/EBLPublic/PublicView.do?ptiID=686442. Hasse, G. (2013). “Patient-Centered Care in Adult Trauma Intensive Care Unit,” Journal of Trauma Nursing vol. 20, no. 3 pp. 163-165, doi: 10.1097/JTN.0b013e3182a172a0 Hugman, B. (2009). Healthcare communication. London, Pharmaceutical Press. Jones, S., & Groom, F. M. (2012). Information and communication technologies in healthcare. Boca Raton, FL, CRC Press. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=411963. Krautscheid, L. (2008). “Improving Communication among Healthcare Providers: Preparing Student Nurses for Practice,” International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship vol. 5, no. 1, Article 40, doi: 10.2202/1548-923X.1647. National Center For The Study Of Adult Learning And Literacy (U.S.), Productive Media, Inc, & Harvard School Of Public Health. (2000). In plain language the need for effective communication in medicine and public health. [Cambridge, Mass.], Harvard School of Public Health Odyssey Productions Llc., & Insight Media (Firm). 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