Patient-Care Care: A Case Study of the Australian Health Care Facility
Introduction
Developing empathy, self- awareness, and emotional intelligence is vital when working in the health care facilities as it helps in building proper communication between the clinicians and the patients. Empathy works effectively in impacting the patients as they feel that they have helped the patient to feel appreciated and understood and therefore, they feel less alone. Self-awareness incorporates things like understanding and knowing ones’ biases, values, desires, and corporations. This may influence the way we intermingle with other groups. Emotional intelligence is important is the health care practice as to help to reduce stress in the workplace which could otherwise impact the performance of one’s duties and therefore threaten the safety of the patient and the quality of the services they offer.
The therapeutic communications
A person under any treatment facility will need extra attention and care and will want to have listened. The skills in empathy, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence are vital as they assist the health care provided to collaborate with other workmates and thus develop teamwork among them and boost communication between them and the health care consumers. These aspects are important because health care providers are expected to offer their services without betraying their position and practice.
For example, a nurse should communicate the patient’s condition to the family without any situations that may alleviate fears within the patients’ loved ones. These traits are important when dealing with the patient in a patient centered environment. This pair implores emotional intelligence, empathy and self awareness in communicating under the patient- centered environment.
Communication in a patient centered environment.
When dealing with patients it is important that one puts aside their personal values and interests in order to give a priority to the desires, the condition and the values of the patient as well as those of his or her family. These, therefore, calls for professionalism coupled with empathy, respectful, and compassion towards the patient’s ad especially when the condition they are going through is challenging them.
Team work coupled with excellent communication between and amongst the clinic practitioners and the healthiness care consumers are central to the provision of safe health services. Health care providers should realize that health care provision is a team effort and the whole team and system should be united to deliver the best results. Health care providers should ensure that there are good relationships between them and erg patient. This is because good communication is vital in ensuring that a patient receives safe and quality care.
Effective communication between the care givers, the patient and the patients; family can be enabled by the creation of an open and transparent environment. In developing good relations between us and the patient’s impacts them, as they learn that the providers are doing their best to care for them.
Interactions may help in building confidence and these boost their healing process. This is because therapeutic communication satisfies the health care consumer while giving an opportunity for the health care provider to improve their chances of retention and engagement.
Therapeutic relations are vital in helping the patient solve any personal conflicts that they may be experiencing. The nurses will bring in concepts and knowledge on various human experiences, values, and practices within the health care systems. They will use this to slowly guide the patient to gain back the lost confidence which will assist them in their recovering process.
Active listening is important in making the patient feel that they are understood. The clinician should ensure that more to listen to the patient’s side of the story, the attentively and keenly show interest in what the client is telling them. This will make the customers feel important. In addition, a clear understanding and knowledge of the patient and what they are going through is vital as it will lead to non- judgmental attitude and therefore embracing the best medical option for the patients’ condition.
Difficulties to effective patient-clinician communication
According to O’Daniel and Rosenstein (2008), any health care environment characterized by hierarchical culture, those at the top may be feeling that the environment is open and collaborative with the nurses at the bottom feeling the problem of miscommunication. This may lead to differences which in turn may interfere with the collaborative interactions thus impacting the whole system. This is because those at the lower level may experience difficulties in talking to those at the top about their concerns and the problems they may be experiencing in line of duty. This will in turn affect the patients as their problems may not be communicated to eth right persons so as to be handled with.
The World Health Organization (2007) cited that patient-clinician communications are challenged by low levels of literacy. Low literacy level may lead to the patient’s inability to explain what they are going through or even what they feel. Some patients may have experienced confusions as a result of cultural heritages. For example, one community may be associating some symptoms and treatment with certain ailment. Such patient may come to the facility with such a mind and may not be willing to accept the practitioners’ results. The clinician should very well understand the client’s cultural background and beliefs and use that to make the patient understand their situation.
At times communication between the patient and the care can be challenged by pressures that can be as result of responsibilities on the side of the providers and an high number fo patient needs they have to attend to. This situation arises however the ration between the patients and the clinician is high limiting the time that may be used for consumer interaction. This impacts communication as no or minimal interactions may exist between the patient and the care giver.
Some health care facilitates have not embraced the new changes or systems that lead to the interaction between them as care givers and their consumers as patients. This may be caused by failure to accept researches that have been conducted on this particular topic.
Some practitioners may lack confidence on their side to offer advice or face the patients and face the situation they are going through. For example, if a patient has mental illness problem and they are violent, some nurses may fear approaching them and discussing the mental problem with the patient.
Impacts of good communication in a health care facility
According to the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (2013), building of patient- centered approaches can lead to improvements in the safety and quality of the care that the patient gets. This will in turn impact the outcomes of the whole process especially on the side of the health consumer. It has been proved that the way to improving patient safety in our health care facilities is by engaging of patients and other families in care procedures like issues on medications, communicating of errors that might have been committed in the course of heath care processes. Such activities go a long way in minimizing costs by reducing the expenses that may be incurred in rectifying the issues that may arise from errors.
In addition, they can reduce the pain that has been caused to the patients. This is because communication leads to reporting of errors and the analysis of the contributing factors therefore prevention of such.
Poor communication leads to poor information and understanding of eth extent of the harm that might have been caused to the customer which may further complicate the situation.
In cases where the health consumers communicate and understand their care providers, the patients are more willing to accept their health conditions, the available treatment options and adhere to the treatment follow up instructions (Patient Centered Care Improvement Guide, 2008)
Promotion of dialogue promotes humanitarian feelings and personified feeling which leads to the consume opening up and feeling and openly talking and discussion their health conditions with the health care providers. This is because they feel accepted and wanted regardless of their health issues. Systematic communication among the health providers, the patients, and the family of the patients results sin better health services, short stays in the hospital impacts the family outcome as it lead to improved outcomes in the family. This was especially the communication among eth patients with advanced and serious illness and the healthcare outcome.
The positive health care outcomes include customer satisfaction, ability for the consumer to recall information, the patients compliance with the regimens, complying to the dates fo appointments and improvement of the patients conditions. This can be assessed in terms of psychological markers like blood pressures or the blood glucose levels.
Communication creates an atmosphere of care which bridges the social gap that may exist between the provider and the consumers. This leads to social influences evidence in the use of effective communication with the patient feeling free to talk about their experience and their illness story.
Challenges in clinician- patient relations
Communication breakdown is at times inevitable when dealing with patients. This is especially when the patient has not accepted his/ her condition and has denied to listen or accept the instructions or explanations offered by the care giver. In such situations, they may feel that no one understands what they are going through or the experiences they have been through.
For example, if one is suffering from a terminal illness, the frequent questioning of why it had to be them and not another person that sir suffering from that illness may lead to non-acceptance for both themselves and those around them. This poses a challenge as the care providers may find it hard regardless of how much they try to provide approach the patients. This is because the patient may always be distancing himself or herself from the providers by creating a cocoon round them. This breaks the flow of communication in the system.
Broken communication leads to situation that can lead to medical errors, inadequate medical attention, and even excess pain. These errors can lead to adverse effects like injuries or even death of the patients. This is especially when errors perceived as a expression of failure on the providers side (Wu, Joint Commission Resources, Inc. and Joint Commission International 2011). This perception excludes a forum for any fair and open talks that may lead to corrections of a mistake so as to prevent reoccurrence of the same in the future.
Strategies by the Australia to improved patient clinician communication
The WHO (2007), suggested that the health care facilities should implement standardized approaches aimed at improving communication between the staff. This will apply to the changing of shift and in situation where the patient has to be transferred. This would only be possible if the staff takes enough time to communicate any important information. This information can range from hand-over processes, the patients status, medication and treatment plans.
The Australian government is working toward providing a program that will foster vital improvements to providing the specific medical needs in the local societies. These include the Medicare Locals which make it easier for the sick to get entrance to the hospital so as to acquire the services they require. This program will be fragmented to the Local Hospitals Networks thus giving the best to the consumers of the health care services. Moreover the government has strategized to provide the health care workforce that its citizens need. This has been catered fro in the National Health reform and an estimate of $ 1.2 Billion has been allocated to help in achieving the same. More resources are being allocated investing in the provision of training institutions for those who will want to specialize in the health care issues.
The primary medical care in Australia has metamorphosis in a period of time. This has been possible due to the desire to move from a situation where an individual focus was the norm in the health care practice to a point of a collective professionalism practice. This has led to positive changes in the health care system and the initiatives affecting the same. A lot is being done by the Australian government is addressing the health care and health care literacy. In doing this, the government works at integrating health literacy ion to high level systems and all the organizational policies and practices. This will go along away in creating clear, focused, and usable health information and effective communication. In addition, a strategy to integrate health care education is being implemented. This will lead to high literacy levels for both the health consumers and the health care providers.
Conclusion
Empathy, emotional intelligence, and self- awareness are important in the delivery of safe and quality health services to the health care consumers and their families. This is because they affect the level relations and the way the clinician communicates with the patient. Therapeutic relations are central in giving safe and quality services to the health consumers. This is because it will minimize medical errors and boost the patient’s motivation and confidence which goes a long way in impacting the patient’s healing process. Therapeutic communication reduces the chances of the blames that are given to medical practitioners. This leads to safe designing and implementation of proposal to dealing the patients and those that favor and boost their healing process as well as positively impact their families.
References.
Communication during patients’ hand-overs (2007). World Health Organization: The Joint Commission. Retrieved from: http://www.who.int/patientsafety/solutions/patientsafety/PS-Solution3.pdf
Consumers, the health system and health care: taking action to improve safety and quality (2013). Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. Retrieved from: http://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Consumers-the-health-system-and-health-literacy-Taking-action-to-improve-safety-and-quality2.pdf
Improving Primary Health Care for All Australians (2011).Australian Government: National Health Reform. Retrieved from: http://www.yourhealth.gov.au/internet/yourHealth/publishing.nsf/Content/improving-primary-health-care-for-all-australians-toc/$FILE/Improving%20Primary%20Health%20Care%20for%20all%20Australians.pdf
O’Daniel M. & Rosenstein (2008). Professional Communication and Team Collaboration. Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2637/
Practical Approaches for Building A Patient- Centered Culture (2008). Patient-Centered Care Improvement Guide. Retrieved from: http://www.patient-centeredcare.org/chapters/chapter7a.pdf
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Wu, A. W., Joint Commission Resources, Inc., & Joint Commission International. (2011).The value of close calls in improving patient safety: Learning how to avoid and mitigate patient harm. Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois: Joint Commission Resources.