Business Training Materials
Business
Introduction
Effective communication between the clinicians and the patient encompasses a positive impact towards the relationship between the healthcare organization and the service users. The same can be said about effective communication between workers in the healthcare sector in terms of delivering quality service to the patients. The goal of the training is to provide tips information regarding effective communication practices between the healthcare workers, the co-workers, and the patients. This also includes the use of communication in conflict resolution. The second part of the training is the discussion on the ethical and legal concerns for a healthcare organization. The aforementioned areas of discussion are imperative in ensuring the delivery of quality service to the patients and ascertaining the organization’s ethical and legal practices.
Patient interaction is critical in the healthcare sector and for employees working in the healthcare organization; the use of clear and simple language at all times is a must. Patients put a lot of trust to healthcare professionals in terms of providing relevant information about their health. It is known that language is a major barrier in the effective healthcare delivery given the vast diversity of individuals accessing care. In this regard, effective communication between the patient and the healthcare provider should be clear and precise. In addition, it is important not to use medical jargons when talking to the patient, otherwise, it will only cause further confusion on the part o the patient (Cresswell, 2015).
Listening is an important aspect of healthcare communication because the determination of the patient’s problems lies on how well the clinician is picking up the details from the patient’s description of the problem. Giving utmost attention to the patient’s accounts of the health problem is the key to finding the most appropriate and effective health solution. On the other hand, listening is only one part of aspect of effective listening when communicating because it is also important to take notice of the emotional cues (Blackstone, 2009).
Communicating is not only limited to spoken and written words, but also involve actions. The message conveyed by actions is just as important as the spoken words. For instance, communicating with the patient while being busy using the mobile phone and half-listening to the patient conveys a particular and unintentional message that you are not fully interested to what the patient wants to say. Paying attention is an important aspect of effectively communicating with the patient and simple actions may convey a different meaning towards the patient.
Communicating with co-workers in the healthcare setting is essential in terms of avoiding failure in providing service or treatment including muddled diagnoses. Paying attention is key to ensuring that information regarding work and critical tasks are being communicated. Furthermore, respect is essential in a peer-to-peer communication because misconception about spoken words and actions deemed as offensive and disrespectful to another may result to a conflict.
Conflict resolution tips
Conflict within the workplace arises regardless how the organization wants to avoid it. However, defining the acceptable behavior can help reduce instances of conflict. Assuming may be a relevant practice is speculating the cause of a problem, but it should become a practice in resolving one. It is important to draw the line between what behaviors within the workplace are deemed as acceptable and what are not. Although conflicts are almost impossible to avoid in the workplace, effective resolution should always begin by actually seeking the areas of potential occurrence and initiate intervention in a more decisive manner (Myatt, 2012). In conflict resolution, it is important that prior to weighing in, it is essential to determine the motivation behind the actions that causes the conflict. This means that personal objectives play a role in the emergence of conflict and applying the best solution should also consider the relevance of individual objectives on the outcome of solution (Myatt, 2012).
Ethical and Legal Concerns for a Health Care Organization
Healthcare is among the industries where ethical and legal compliance are highly critical. The following are the most common ethical and legal concerns that healthcare organizations are expected to proactively address. Workers in the healthcare setting particularly the clinicians are often the promotion targets of pharmaceutical companies. This encompasses a problem of conflict of interest particularly when the clinician is recommending a more expensive medication to the patient in exchange for gifts from the pharmaceutical company instead of recommending an equally effective medication for a lesser price. The same scenario applies to the other individuals working in the healthcare sector and it violates the ethical conduct of providing the best service to the patient.
Professionals working in the healthcare environment often encounter the realities of the disparity between those that can and cannot afford care. Sometimes, it creates a question of why some people are being given the opportunity to be in life support for years and the insurance are willing to pay for it while there are some that being refused to be covered for maintenance medication by the insurance. The lack of options for the less capable patients create distress among healthcare providers because the oath of service in the healthcare sector involves providing service where necessary, but the business side of healthcare widens the gap in favour of profitability (Kreimer, 2010).
The major legal issues facing the healthcare sector are concerns about regulatory policies ensuring the confidentiality of the patient’s health information. Policies such as HIPAA protect the patient in terms of keeping the health record away from the public’s view. However, practices and operational process often results to violations of such policy. For example, the patient transferring from one provider to another requires that the health records should be transferred to the next provider, but the problem arises when the mishandling of the transfer caused the patient’s record to be viewed by non-authorized individuals.
References
Blackstone, S. (2009). Communication access across the healthcare continuum. Augmentative Communication News, 21(2), 2-16. Retrieved from http://aac-rerc.psu.edu/_userfiles/file/ACN_Pat_Prov.pdf
Cresswell, S. (2015). Top Tips For Effective Communication In Healthcare. Gap Medics UK. Retrieved 27 April 2016, from http://www.gapmedics.co.uk/blog/2015/01/07/top-tips-for-effective-communication-in-healthcare/
Kreimer, S. (2010). Five Ethical Challenges in Healthcare. AMN Healthcare. Retrieved 27 April 2016, from http://www.amnhealthcare.com/latest-healthcare-news/five-ethical-challenges-healthcare/
Myatt, M. (2012). 5 Keys of dealing withworkplace conflict. Forbes.com. Retrieved 27 April 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/02/22/5-keys-to-dealing-with-workplace-conflict/#64eea36515a0
