Question

Communication Skills

Consider that you have obtained employment as a medical assistant in a medium-sized medical office. In your daily work, you encounter a variety of people in the workplace such as patients, other medical professionals, vendors, and public service workers such as US postal personnel. Encounters with those individuals can be both pleasant and unpleasant. Allowing personal feelings to be brought into the health care setting can impede communication and impact patient safety. This is such an important issue the Joint Commission, the accrediting body for many different types of health care settings has made effective communication a National Patient Safety Goal:

Goal #2: Improve the effectiveness of communication among caregivers.

Explore the importance of effective communication in the medical office.

Include the following aspects in the discussion:

• Demonstrate how customer-service is important as a receptionist, in the office and on the telephone.
• Provide at least one medical office scenario where you see yourself applying interpersonal communication skills to help facilitate patient care.
• Discuss some consequences of ineffective interpersonal communication.

Answer 1

Good communication skills are an asset in medical practice. effective communication increses confidence of doctor and build a healthy doctor patient relation.,strengthen relation with other staff members.

good communication is about understanding instructions,acquiring new skiills,making requests,asking questions and relaying information with ease. there are 4 main types of communication.,

verbal , nonverbal , written and visual

effective communication skills requires good inter personal skills, understanding of patient needs, training.

Some common various to effective communication include :

a. use of jargon

b. emotional barrier and taboos.

c. lack of attention , interest, distraction or irrelevents to reciever.

d. defference in perception and view point.

e. physical dissabilities such as hearing problems or speech difficulties.

Effective communication occur ehen the reciever comprehence the information that the centre intense to convey.

Process of communication is a cyclic one, as it begings with the center and ends with the center in the form of feed back.

Five skills absolutely necessary for successful communication in the work place are :

1. listening

2. straight talking

3. non verbal communication

4. stress management

5. emotional control

Benefits of effective communication :

1. building trust

2. preventing or resolving problems

3. providing clarity and direction

4.creates better relationship

5.improves productivity

6.promotes team building

Strategies for effective verbal communication includes :

1. Focus on the issue

2. Be genuine rather than manipulative

3. Empathize rather than remain dettached

4. Be flexible towards others

5. Value yourself and your own experiencess

COMMON CAUSES OF MISCOMMUNICATIONS ARE :

• Assumptions
• Hasty communications
• Misunderstanding
• Lack of listening

Customer service in health care either through receptionist or on the telephone is more important for the proper function of hospital.

Patients need personal attention and thorough communication about their health.Health concerns often cause a great deal of anxiety among patient and their family members.A good communication will resolve these problems.

Most important aspect for providing great patients care are patience, understanding, copassion, and sympathy.

Most important thing you can do for a patient is to be welcoming, comforting, and as inviting as you possibly can be.

Ways to provide great customer service to patients :

a. Make sure each employees is capable of making good first impression

b. Keep your promises

c. Show appreciation and gratitude to patients.

d. Provide solid training

e. Listen and act when your patients complaint

g. Go above and beyond what your patient expect  

h. Be open with mistake

Patient satisfaction is the extend to which patients are happy with their health care both inside and outside of doctors office, a meassure of care quality.

EXAMPLE FOR SCENARIO APPLYING INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS:

While doing emergency duty which demands anaesthesia doctor for the sake of a patients care, as in the case of tracheal intubation.A good interpersonal communication skill over the telephone can helps in achieving proper treatment to the patient.

DISCUSS SOME CONSEQUENCES OF INEFFECTIVE INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

Ineffective and poor communication can results in several problematic issues such as:

a. creation of uncertainty

b. a conflict on the designation of the resources

c. lack of collaboration and poor team work

d. gossiping and friction

e.miss communication on dead lines and work processes

f. decreasing morale and engagement.