Concept of Health Communication - Essay Example

Health Critique Introduction In medical terms, the concept of health and communication is a vital area most health practitioners should embrace as far as the practice is concerned. Incorporation of health and behavior is relatively connected with communication intervention practitioners use when interacting with patients. According to Medicalnewstoday (2013), the term health can be defined as state of complete physical, mental and social well being. This is contrary to what people believe that health is simply absence of disease. Noting is the fact that proper use of health communication strategies in conjunction with advanced health information delivery technology promotes and achieves quality health care. The paper tends to explore discussion of topic A and C in section one relating it to the video clip. In section 2, the essay will discus topic B and D also relating it to the video. Practically, when a nurse is attending to a patient, proper communication relationship will influence 100% patient audience and awareness concerning the health issue. The nurse will be able to influence positive attitude of the patient towards the health issue hence the patient gets motivated and hope for quick recovery. Section 1 Question A According to Dahlgren and Whitehead’s 1991 model, it is evident that sociological factors broadly affect and determine the health practice of an individual. According to the model, there are various factors that influence individual health which as socially related. The model broadly and clearly describes social-ecological theories towards proper health practice (Whitehead and Dahlgren, 2005). The main objective of the model is to map-out possibilities of relationship between an individual, their environment and diseases (Whitehead and Dalhgren, 2005). In relation to the video, it is evident that personal behavior and way of living is a major factor affecting the health of the patient. Poor personal behavior and bad choice of peer is one of the greater social determinants towards proper health practices. In reality, most people fall victim of health issues due to poor social relationship. For example, choice to smoke is a personal decision that can be triggered by poor choices of friends. Peer influence is a major determinant of health in a society. This is because it is known that many people fall victim of serious health issues; for example drug abuse due to bad peer choice. On the other hand, societies with responsible peer groups do face fewer health issues that are socially unacceptable. Secondly, the patient is also faces poor social and community relationship. This is because in normal circumstances, the community members usually provide strong support to their members most precisely when they fall into serious health issues for example drug addiction. Most communities in the world have developed strategies for helping their members especially during unfavorable conditions. Contrary, it is evident that the community provided no support or had a negative impact to Moses (the patient) conditions due to his poor social relationship. Moreover, Moses poor social relationship may also emanate from past exposure to crime, violence or social disorder (Each.com, 2006). This completely put off everybody from helping him. In summary, it is important to mention that such social neglect do have a severe negative psychological impact to Moses and even make his health issue worsen. When everybody avoids and neglects you due to bad behavior, it lowers individual self esteem and defines no meaning of life. Poverty is the key contributor to poor health practices among many people living in various societies. In addition, inability to meet the daily needs due to unavailability of resources is another key contributor towards health issue as exhibited in the patient’s case. This is mostly contributed by failure to secure a job that would help in sustaining daily needs. The other social factor according to the model that determines the health condition of Moses is structural factors. This flatly includes poor housing, working conditions, inaccessible health services, and poor balanced diet; are some of the social factors that determine health (Whitehead and Dalhgren, 2005). However, with poverty and unemployment conditions submerging Moses all these proper health determinants are never met. Question C Based on the video interaction, there is evidence of Ewles and Simnett’s planning cycle (2003) used to evaluate the health promotion strategies used by Eunice the nurse (Each.com, 2006). First and foremost, the Eunice was keen to identify the fact that there was need and priorities to ensure that Moses was assisted. Based on the situation Moses was in, there were signs that were revealing that his case was serious. The Eunice is seen consulting and collecting data from Moses as an important measure of determining the priority of the health condition (Each.com, 2006). The next step includes setting aims and objectives of the health promotion strategies. Eunice is heard describing the short and long term intentions of the health promotion. This includes ways to improve self esteem and social acceptance. Above all Eunice also encouraged Moses to have hope for quick recovery and empowered him on how to choose friends and way of life. The next step Eunice also employed was to develop the best way the set objectives would be achieved (Each.com, 2006). This can best be achieved by promotion of personal skills. Research has revealed that training of health workers on proper communication and skills development is an effective strategy (Each.com, 2006). The strategy is more effective precisely when implemented with other strategies and when used on disadvantageous groups or communities. The next step used includes planning for proper health promotion evaluation method. This is a vital process that will help verify whether the health promotion strategies are being implemented by Moses or not. It is very fundamental for the health worker to prove that the Moses was on the right tract thus inhibiting recurrence of the health condition. This will include impromptu visitation to Moses home and find out his condition. Moses will also be scheduled for regular monthly visitation to the hospital for checkup. Question-answer method used by Eunice will also verify the Moses progress if positive or negative. Finally, there is need to set up an action plan. This will involve activities and behavior the patient should engage in order to permanently eliminate the health issue. This will include engaging in positive youth activities to kill idleness and choose peer with mutual benefit. Joining a rehabilitation center will help Moses to comfortably end drug use and become socially acceptable. On the other hand, there is need to overcome this entire barrier by directly addressing the issues. This includes coming up with methods of reducing mortality by making medical facilities accessible to everybody at affordable price. Holding campaign and educational gathering to create awareness to people on better health practices and its importance is critical. Additionally, there is need to identify people with health need and encourage them to seek more knowledge on better health practices (Each.com, 2006). In regard to the video, there is need to encourage social cohesion and reconciliation among communities members. Relatively, the society needs to assist everybody despite their sociological status. Section 2 Question b Nurses today do offer care education and case management to increasingly diversity of patients (Singleton and Krause, 2009). In most cases, many patients are more faced with challenges that act as barrier to effective interaction with health workers. Such barrier extends and causes a block toward an effective interaction between the nurse and the patient. When the nurse wants to educate the patient on the health issue, such barrier does result in poor communication thus affecting proper health promotion. In reality, in relation to this, various factors including cultural, linguistic and health literacy form part of the barrier to effective communication (Singleton and Krause, 2009). To begin with, the greatest challenge is when Moses was unwilling to communicate to the Eunice as exhibited in the video. Such kind of communication difficulties could emanate from shyness, health difficulty in speaking or even ignorance. When Moses was unwilling to effectively communicate with the Eunice or refused to correctly answer her questions; that was the beginning of misdiagnose. This can constitute toward medical errors. The other barrier emanating includes ethnicity and cultural diversity. When Eunice met Moses who comes from a remote culture and ethnic backgrounds, such strong cultural beliefs might force him to be reserve and exacerbate communication barrier. In reality, such cultural and ethnic difference forced Moses to refrain from being assertive (Singleton and Krause, 2009).This can also make Moses go a step ahead and fail to challenge the Eunice opinion openly. Moses therefore preserves his personal challenges to himself rather than sharing them with the Eunice. This automatically will contribute to ineffective health promotion due to lack of factual information from the patient. Gender difference is another barrier exhibited during the health worker- patient interaction. This is seen when Moses being male has to reveal to Eunice being female his personal and confidential secrets. Many men would fear discloser of their personal problems to a nurse of opposite sex (Singleton and Krause, 2009). The barrier is common to many people thus contribute to misdiagnosis. Lack of essential background history from the patient will hinder effective health promotion. One of the most crucial steps towards eliminating communication barrier in health sector is for the center to show commitment and willingness to address the issue. Communication is a need that must gather support from the top management to low staffs of health centers. By addressing challenges in communication as a key factor toward ineffective patient diagnosis and collaboration, medical practitioners will be dealing with the most crucial issue in the field. As a corrective measure, the issue should be included in directly in any patient safety program (Singleton and Krause, 2009). The clinical officers and nurses should also take forefront tone of setting and adhering to professional behaviors that promote patient free interaction. Most importantly is the signing of code of conduct that ensures professionalism in handling patient’s confidential information. This should also include support to non-punitive culture and zero-tolerance policies (Singleton and Krause, 2009). Secondly, there is need to recognize promotion of self awareness among patients. This will help to build confidence and courage for them to share information with health workers. This can be promoted when the management would be carrying out frequent internal assessment aimed at pinpointing health workers-patients relationships as far as communication barrier is concerned. This could be well attained via direct observation, patients questionnaire, report writing and suggestion boxes (Singleton and Krause, 2009). Question d Focusing on the video scenario, Eunice employed variety of communication strategies. In health industry, communication is considered to be a very complex and vital process. This is because it involves sending and receiving of information. This information includes verbal and non-verbal form of communication. It is very essential for exchange of information which will foresee proper diagnosis takes place. Eunice also did use verbal form of communication. This entails the proper and conscious use of spoken or written words. This means that clarity in expression and pace of speaking should be done professionally for communication to be complete. Active listening is the other form of communication that Eunice employed. In this type of communication, Eunice was able to fully pay attention to Moses and even concentrate on some of the non-verbal indicators of discomfort, distress and even distance in Moses (Inking Therapeutic, 2008). Active listening communication method is very important since it allows Eunice to use both listening and observation technics during interaction. This is essential noting the fact that listening is more powerful than speaking. Many people link listening to non-verbal form of communication since one concentrates more and is keen on observation of patients cue. An open-ended question is another communication technique Eunice employed in the interaction. This is a very effective method since one is able to gather specific detailed information from Moses. In reality, during a holistic nursing assessment Eunice used terms like “can you tell me about…? Would you try to explain….?.” (Inking Therapeutic, 2008). Such questions focus on extracting information from Moses without necessarily bothering him much. Additionally, the use of open-ended questions allows Eunice to explore emotional cues or even hidden unexpressed health issues on Moses (Inking Therapeutic, 2008). Closed questioning is another technique Eunice also used. According to the video, the she did ask Moses questions that required only short answers. For example when Eunice asked the Moses “Are you allergic to any medication?” the answer was “No.” Notable to mention is that, closed questioning method of communication is best used in situation where simple and straight answers are required. In addition to this it is one of the most preferred methods of communication. This is by the fact that it is time saving. Contrary to the positive side, it is also very disturbing if not well used. This is because if misused, it can bring a conversation into a sudden halt. Focused questioning is another very instrumental method of communication employed by Eunice in the video. This is a type of communication that focused primarily of specific topics (Inking Therapeutic, 2008). When Eunice wanted specific information from Moses, she used focused questioning. This method narrows down the topic and gives room for an elaborate response from Moses. Moreover, this type of communication draws the attention of the patient and feels the seriousness of the conversation. Non-verbal communication is also very inspiring way of interacting with the patient. According to the video, Eunice was keen to use non-verbal method of communication. This is evident when she is spotted nodding the head when Moses was describing his issues. Nodding helped Moses to realize that he was on the right tract and he had the support from Eunice in whatever he was saying. Other forms of non-verbal communication include gestures, shaking of head and smacking. They offer an indirect support to especially when someone is talking. Conclusion It is therefore evident from the above discussion that there is fundamental need for medical practitioners to embrace proper communication strategies as a measure of ensuring patient discussion is successful. References Each.com, 2006. Health Promotion. Accessed on March 23, 2014, from http://www.each.com.au/health-promotion/health-promotion-at-each/what-is-health- promotion/planning/ Inking Therapeutic, 2008. Nurse–Patient Communication. Accessed on March 23, 2014, from https://www.inkling.com/read/chang-transitions-nursing-3rd/chapter-11/therapeutic- nursepatient. Medicalnewstoday, (2013). What is Health? What Does Good Health Mean? Accessed on March 24, 2014, from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/150999.php. Singleton, K., & Krause, E., 2009. Understanding Cultural and Linguistic Barriers to Health Literacy. Accessed from http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodi cals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol142009/No3Sept09/Cultural-and-Linguistic- Barriers-.html Whitehead & Dalhgren, 2005. Social model of health. Accessed on March 23, 2014, from http://www.nwci.ie/download/pdf/determinants_health_diagram.pdf. Read More