Provider-Patient Communication Analysis

characteristics of provider-patient communication (Kripalani, Jacobson, Mugalia, Cawthon, Niesner & Vaccarino, 2010). The health information communicated by an organizations staff, such as the physicians and nurse practitioners, should reflect communication techniques that focus on and emphasize the effects that low literacy can have on a patients health outcome. When considering the navigational, cognitive, and social set of language skills needed to function in a healthcare environment, organizations must ensure that the style and degree of communication deployed is sensitive to the literacy levels which they anticipate and are presented with daily. Strong communication skills deployed by a provider are a critical component

Although, consistent, effective and careful communication by the physician can be a strong deterrent towards low patient health literacy, physicians often fail to utilize this skillset, where they often overestimate the literacy levels of their patients (Weatherspoon, Horowitz, Kleinmen & Wang, 2015). Therefore, physicians should focus on the close interactions with each patient without assuming that the individual’s health literacy capacity isn’t greater than their perceived notion. Studies suggest that immediately after leaving the physician, many patients are able to recall only 50% or less of the medical information communicated to them by their physicians (Williams, Davis, Parker & Weiss, 2002). Therefore, the communication between the patient and the physician is a core skill, and should exist within a patient-friendly capacity, emphasizing basic communication techniques that promote a calm and friendly healthcare environment for the individual. Furthermore, a physician should place an emphasis on using effective comprehensive techniques such as implementing a style of care that integrates simple language, speaking in a slower manner, delivering only a few concepts at a time, inquiring about the patients habits towards their follow-up once home, as well as practicing the “teach-back” method or word recognition tests, where patients repeat the information communicated to them by their physicians (Weatherspoon, Horowitz, Kleinmen & Wang,