Healthcare Promotion

Healthcare Promotion

Introduction

Communication in health care plays a significant role and can affect the health of the patients and even their survival. There are many critical roles that communication plays in a health care environment and barriers to communication may result in a variety of problems. The paper will summarize the key points in the three readings (Street & Epstein, 2008; Simply Put, 2009; Tervalon & Murray-Garcia, 1998) in order to highlight the key issues and factors surrounding communication in healthcare and the influence it has on health care and in health promotion. The paper will then present three questions for further discussion related to the topic and in light of the insights provided by the readings.

Discussion

There has been a significant amount of research over the years especially since the past few decades surrounding health care provider-patient interactions with each presenting different aspects surrounding the subject. Street & Epstein (2008) highlighting the importance of good communication in health related services take a functional approach which helps in asserting that communication does have a significant role to play in accomplishing certain tasks such as in reaching a diagnosis and making treatment decisions. They also in their article suggest pathways between effective communication and health outcomes and discuss the manner in which clinician-patient communication can take place. The purpose of the paper is also to formulate a theoretical model to identify key functions of this clinician-patient communication and also with the help of an example attempt to enhance the understanding towards the key concepts related to clinical practice guidelines by specifically applying to smoking cessation counseling. The paper also identifies key moderators as interventions in the process.

Researchers have categorized communication into several types based on the degree of control exercised between the patient and the provider. Roter and Hall (1992) have suggested four different types of interaction and named these relationships to be paternalistic, mutuality, default and consumerism. In each of the relationship there is a certain varying degree of control that the provider and patient has, which has an effect to the final outcome of the interaction. These outcomes then subsequently have a direct or an indirect effect on the health outcomes of the patient.

Pathways between clinician-patient communication and health outcomes

There are various communication functions in a health care scenario which include information exchange, responding to emotions, managing uncertainty, fostering relationships, making decisions and enabling self-management. All these communication functions can either indirectly lead to proximal outcomes which subsequently lead to intermediate outcomes and then to health outcomes or it can take a direct path to health outcomes. These 'proximal outcomes' would include developing understanding, satisfaction, clinician-patient agreement, trust and rapport with the patient which helps the patient in getting access to care, putting trust in system etc. These proximal outcomes would also lead to some other intermediate outcomes such as in emotional management, changes in patient health behaviors, social support, taking quality medical decisions, and in developing self-care skills. These outcomes would ultimately have an effect on the health outcomes ...