Health Care Communication Methods - Report Example

Topic: Health Care Communication Methods Health Care Communication Methods There are rampant disparities in the racial and class oriented health care. These inequalities are not isolated to the healthcare sector alone. On the other hand, the disparities in the nature of the health care emanate from the commitment of the United States to come up with the approach to people that is equal and accommodative to all. The approach that the national health care institutions use when communicating with the employees are important in that they determine the capacity of the organisation to communicate in the right manner. Communication to the patients may evoke the feeling of inequality that is evident in the society. Therefore, it is very important for the government and other stakeholders in the health care system to come up with the mode of communication that is accommodative to all the people regardless of their inequality (Webb, 2011). The issue of inequality is just but a minor representation of the other pertinent issues that affect the communication between the doctors and the patients. This paper will look at the issue of communicating effectively with patients that come from diverse backgrounds in terms of the race and economic class (Balzer-Riley, 2008). It will look at the ways that one can communicate the change in the routine to the patients that may have reservations about the sharing of information from the current organisational heads to the incoming leaders. The paper will look at the issues that may make the patients apprehensive of the communication with the employees. The main issues that may face the movement of the patients to the other hospitals touch on the common human behaviour attributes of the apprehension to change. The patients that have stayed in one facility for long often end up developing an acceptance for the area. The care center turns out to be their home and they are accustomed to all the elements that make the place what it is (Webb, 2011). Acclimatization to the area may lead to the development of the idea that there is a degree of permanence as far as their stay and the interactions with other people is concerned. This means that the patients will develop a lot of resistance to the move to the new location. The communication about the change in the area and the people involved in the care provision ought to be made in consideration of the potential resistance to change that the patients will display (Balzer-Riley, 2008). The communication process must assure the patients that they will find the same conditions with the ones that they are accustomed to in the area that they will be transferred. When the administrators consider the impacts of the move to the patients, they will end up providing them with the best movement conditioning, which will define the capability of the patients to adjust their time and orientations to accommodate the new locale and the people that will be providing them with the care (Ness & Others, 2007). The other aspect that the communication to the patients must consider is the potential impact of the communication on their recovery path. In most of the psychological institutions, the mental condition of the patient may serve as a central element of the discordance in behaviour that manifests in most of the patients. Therefore, the communication of the process to the residents in the area has to consider the effects of the move and the change of the employees in the organisation (Ness & Others, 2007). In the event that the patients are not receptive to the changes in the policy, the approach to the policymaking ought to change such that the aspects that define the normality of the people move according to the expectations of the patients. The communication of the change and the change itself ought to be undertaken in such a manner that the patients will not notice the change (Balzer-Riley, 2008). The other people that are prone to be affected by the change are the employees. Changes in policy will affect the employees the most since they are the people that will be charged with the policy implementation (Ness & Others, 2007). In this case, the communication of the change to the employees ought to consider the effects of the change in the mode of working of the employees and the potential impact of the change in the attitudes of the employees and the consequential performance. Once again, the introduction of the changes in policy should not happen at once. On the contrary, the information ought to be communicated in bits. The policy makers should not wake up one day and start telling the employees that they have to change their mode of working. There should be a process of communicating the information that will be cushioning the employees from the shock that comes with the change. The communication of the change in approaches to work ought to assume an official outlook. In most of the cases that information of a change is passed around through the grapevine, there is little commitment to the undertaking. It may also lead to the confusion on the authenticity of the information (Balzer-Riley, 2008). To avoid the confusion and the lack of commitment to change, all the information on the change ought to come from the official sources of the organisation. This aspect of the communication is also applicable to the communication between the caregivers and the patients. The advantages of using the traditional media touch on the ease of the access to the information in that all the people are familiar with the information. Secondly, the use of the traditional media may lead to the creation of the atmosphere that the subject matter is official. The access to this information translates to ease of acting on the information. On the other hand, the use of electronic media and social media is cheaper compared to the traditional media in that the information can be transmitted to the final user by the touch of a button. The recipient of the information will often receive the information at the instant during which it was sent. This also means that there is an opportunity to provide the final user of the information with immediate feedback. The disadvantage of the traditional media is that it takes time since the information has to be printed and posted in a place where all the people can see it (Annas, 2003). The media is also not as convenient as the electronic media. Traditional media lack the immediacy when it comes to the attainment of the required feedback (Muñoz & Luckmann et al., 2005). Social media has the main disadvantage being the lack of official nature. Finally, in the age of phishing and spam, the electronic media may be clogged with so much irrelevant messages that the recipient misses the message. The HIPAA privacy rule was enacted as a means of ensuring that the practitioners in the medical field adhere to the rights of privacy that are inherent to all the people. The rule was made mainly to restrict the flow of information that is considered sensitive from the practitioners that have contact with the employees to the other parties that are not stakeholders in the health development of the child. The rule provided for the assent of the individual before the release of any information that is deemed confidential to the outside parties (Annas, 2003). This rule has an important influence when it comes to the communication of any information that relates to the health of the patient. The rule is mainly applicable to all the practitioners when they are communicating. Therefore, this rule will still be pertinent in the communication of any information between the organisation and the incoming owners of the organisation (Annas, 2003). The transfer of any information concerning the patients in the organisation has to consider the feelings of the patient towards the practice. In the event that the patient has indicated that he is not willing to share the information with the incoming leaders of the organisation, the practitioners have to inform him or her on the results of the move. The transitioning practitioners have to ensure that the information on the move is transferred only after the individual has provided them with the consent for the sharing of information in accordance to the HIPAA rule (Muñoz & Luckmann et al., 2005). This reason will ensure that the private medical information of the individual does not fall into the public domain without the consent of the patient. This rule will apply to all modes of communication in the same manner (Annas, 2003). References Annas, G. J. (2003). HIPAA regulations-a new era of medical-record privacy? New England Journal of Medicine, 348 (15), pp. 1486--1490. Balzer-Riley, J. W. (2008). Communication in nursing. St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby/Elsevier. Mun~oz, C. C., Luckmann, J. & Luckmann, J. (2005). Transcultural communication in nursing. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson/Delmar Learning. Ness, R. B. & Others (2007). Influence of the HIPAA privacy rule on health research. Jama, 298 (18), pp. 2164--2170. Webb, L. (2011). Nursing. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More