Have you ever wondered why you can never understand what comes out of a doctor’s mouth? Its like he is speaking another language filled with twice as many words, longer than you thought should ever exist. This is because in the medical field there is certain health literacy, meaning, unless our a health care professional, who’s undergone years of studying this literacy, its going to be rather hard to comprehend why you found yourself talking to a doctor in the first place. This health literacy helps doctors and professionals in the medical field communicate with each other efficiently and accurately. As a pre-med major, figuring out this literacy is what will change me from an undergrad to a professional. The complexity of communication that is present in the medical field allows professionals to execute their duties with perfection.
One form of this different language is face-to-face communication. Between doctor and patient communication can be tough. Many factors are involved in face-to-face communication. One limitation is vocabulary. Doctors are trained to use and understand a multitude of advance words, which add together to create a health literacy. Defined by he American Medical Association, health literacy is ‘a constellation of skills, including the ability to perform basic reading and numerical tasks required to function in the health care environment”(Saffeer, Richard S., MD, and Jann Keenan). Health literacy is the basic understanding of language and math that allows people to function properly in a health care environment. This advance set of vocabulary has been ingrained into the minds of eager students. It is the language they have been studying and learning for years.
Doctors are used to communicating with ...
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...rrectly with there fellow doctors. Whether through journals, articles, or face to face, this health literacy, that’s been ingrained in professional’s minds, has helps them treat patients to their best abilities. Communication in the medical field may be one of the most important skills a doctor must hone.
Works Cited
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2. Saffeer, Richard S., MD, and Jann Keenan. "Health Literacy: The Gap Between Physicians and Patients." American Family Physician. American Academy of Family Physicians, 1 Aug. 2005. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
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Conaty-Buck, S. (2009). Unblocking barriers: Clearing the channel to improve communication between practitioners and patients with low health literacy. (Order No. 3364864, University of Virginia). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 121. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.uproxy.library.dc-uoit.ca/docview/305011452?accountid=14694. (305011452).
Communication is cited as a contributing factor in 70% of healthcare mistakes, leading to many initiatives across the healthcare settings to improve the way healthcare professionals communicate. (Kohn, 2000.)
In the healthcare setting, teach-back is used when patient education is required (Tamura-Lis, 2013, p. 270). Teach-back is defined as a non-shaming process of asking patients to repeat information in their own words (Tamura-Lis, 2013, p. 268). It involves teaching and learning between two participants. Patients who have low health literacy levels are at risked for the need of teach-back. These include patients who are older than 60 years old (Eadie, 2014, p. 9). Older adult patients may have sensory alterations that impair communication (Potter & Perry, 2013, p. 181). In addition, patients from low socioeconomic status and minority groups are more likely to have inadequate health literacy (Tamura-Lis, 2013, p. 267). Nevertheless, assessment tools are available to identify a patient’s health literacy level (Eadie, 2014, p. 11)
Communication is the key to any successful profession. A lack of understanding due to miscommunication to lead to harming the business causing losses. In the case of a physician – patient relationship it is not just the revenue that is effected but also the health or even life of an individual depends on effective communication where both parties understands each other.
261). Health literacy "is defined by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, Title V, as the degree to which an individual has the capacity to obtain, communicate, process, and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decisions (Bastable, 2014, p. 261). Literacy and health literacy, can affect the learners motivation, compliance, ability to understand discharge instructions, properly make informed decisions and so forth. Additionally, readability and comprehension must also be taken into consideration. It is crucial to the wellbeing and safety of our learners that literacy, readability, and comprehension are determined to ensure appropriate education methods and models are used. Along these same lines, Nurse Educators should also take special consideration to the learners age, gender, socioeconomic class,
Communication encompasses a wide range of processes such as the exchange of information, listening, posing of questions (Fleischer et al., 2009) or use of body language. In a healthcare environment where there are constant interactions among nurses, doctors, patients and other health professionals, professional and effective communication is important in ensuring high quality healthcare standards and meeting the individual needs of patients.
When educating our patients it is important to make sure that all education is documented. Documentation of all patient education is important because this will provide legal record for the nurse. It is also important in documentation that this will validate that all standards of care are being met. The Joint Commission will review charts and audit for the proper documentation such as patient education. The result of proper charting will provide reimbursement for the hospital, along with creating a safe environment for the patients. When it comes to the Joint Commission it also brings importance to tactics for patients with low literacy. As part of making care patient-centered, healthy literacy comes into play. When documenting this is an area that nurses have accountability for in order to create a safe learning environment. There is a high rate of medical errors and adverse events related to communication breakdowns, now widely recognized, are also widely acknowledged to be untenable (Edwards). The Joint Commission allows for guidelines to establish patient-centered care in order to create the best outcomes for
Effective communication between patient and clinician is an important aspect to patient care. Proper communication has a direct positive impact on patient care and adversely poor communication has a direct negative impact on patient care. I will define the seven principles of patient-clinician communication and how I apply these communications with my patients. I will also describe the three methods currently being used to improve interdisciplinary communication and the one method that my area of practice currently uses. Then, I will explain the ethical principles that can be applied to issues in patient-clinician communication. And Lastly, the importance of ethics in communication and how patient safety is influenced by good or bad team communication.
Silverman J, Kurtz S, and Draper J (2005). Skills for communicating with patients. Radcliffe Publishing, Oxford.
There is considerable evidence of the Lee’s having both low print and oral literacy. The Lee’s spoke very little English; they also were illiterate in both English and Hmong (Faidman, 1997). Another contributing factor to their health literacy was their beliefs about medicine. Because of the dissonance between the Lee’s beliefs and the American medical system, it was unclear if the Lee’s fully understood the cause of Lia’s epilepsy or the purpose of her prescribed medication. Their motivation to learn may also have been a factor; they believed they already knew what caused Lia’s epilepsy and what healing she needed. Faidman describes cases of successfully communicating western medical ideals with Hmong people, but Lia’s case is not an example of effective cross-cultural understanding. The Lee’s low level of health literacy severely impacted their ability to successfully understand and administer Lia’s medication, which may have negatively affected her health outcomes. Some strategies to improve communication suggested by Egbert and Nanna (2009) that may have helped the Lee’s include using plain language that is culturally sensitive, spending more time with the patient to ensure understanding, and using a, “...teach-back method, in which patients repeat back to the provider the information they believe they have just
One of the most important elements in discharge teaching is the concept of health literacy. This can be defined as: “…the ability of the patient to understand and obtain basic health information services,” (Kornburger, 2013 p. 288). This information is to help patient better understand about their illness and treatment. Another research done by Weiss (2007) states that, “The relationship between limited health literacy and poorer health occurs in all socioeconomic groups and in many disease states”. This researcher also adds that 89 to 90 million adults in the United States have limited health literacy. Given this data, it is possible ...
Health literacy is “the degree to which an individual has the capacity to obtain, communicate, process, and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decisions” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). Low health literacy is a major problem in the US and it can have a negative impact on patient health and outcomes. Another major problem is heart failure. When low health literacy is combined with a chronic condition, like heart failure, research has shown disastrous consequences, such as poor quality of health and increased mortality. According to data heart failure and low health literacy are costly, common problems among populations 65 and older. Changes to healthcare to improve health literacy
There are many actions the health professional can take to help increase their patients’ health literacy. Some steps are simple, easy to complete. Other tasks take the cooperation of multiple departments and people, but are just as important to help improve health literacy. The first step to ...
Knowledge is continuously derived and analyzed from the experience of learners validating the truism that experience is the best teacher (Kolb, 1984). The aim of this module was to assist international students improve their communication skills which is key to a successful medical practice. This essay examines my journey through the module, sums up my experience and highlights its relevance to my career.
I started to explore the different fields of medicine by working as a Medical Scribe in the Emergency Department, ER tech in Trauma Centers, getting involved in research, volunteering at hospitals and taking high level science classes. This will enhance my knowledge and experience i...