Effective Communication Essay: Value Of Inter-Professional Interaction
Question
Task: Consider the Benny’s Case Study and prepare effective communication essay exploring the usefulness of inter-professional interaction with the patients with mental health issues.
Answer
Introduction
Physicians depend on effective communication to take history and make a proper diagnosis of the patient’s conditions which is the main concern of effective communication essay. Effective communication is a skill that can help physicians minimize the misunderstandings that may arise when interacting with patients (Weger et al., 2014). When dealing with mental health patients, effective communication is very important because the practitioner has to convince the client to open up, first by winning their trust. Health professionals are required to communicate with the patient during the course of therapy to help develop trust and rapport and win the client’s confidence as well. Therefore, in this effective communication essay, we shall explore effective communication skills and barriers in communicating with such clients. Herein effective communication essay, we shall also assess how to conduct therapeutic communication for a patient with a mental health issue. Also, we shall explore the usefulness of inter-professional interaction and involvement in the treatment of such patients as Benny and the ethical issues around such communication as well.
Developing Rapport with the Client
Having a proper eye contact will express compassion and care. Having good eye contact with the client will give them an impression of having an interest in their condition and allow them to open up. The other strategy is to show empathy to the client. Empathy is trying to show some understanding of the client's feelings, situations, and perspectives (Hirst & Bradley, 2020). Empathy helps the professional to provide more patient-based care. Another useful skill is to have more open communication with the patient. It has been shown in this effective communication essay that good communication with the client leads to more substantial outcomes among the patients (Hirst & Bradley, 2020). Assessing the preferred mode and way of communication is another way of creating more open communication explored in this segment of effective communication essay. It is also good to inform the patient of any change in their treatment or their therapeutic patterns.
The health practitioner should try to know Benny from a personal point of view and dig deep on his origin, his cultural background, and what he does for fun. Communicating your need to understand your client as a person makes them more open to communication as opposed to trying to know them as a patient. Active listening is also an important part of creating a good rapport with the client. It is a useful tool and a less intrusive way of sharing the patient’s feelings and thoughts (Allison & Hardin, 2019). The physician should actively listen to the patient by keenly noting to what Benny is saying, repeating what he says, and nodding to agree with him and also confirmed with the patient to create a perfect reflection. Active listening helps the nurse or the practitioner to know the intentions and feelings behind the patient’s words. The practitioner should listen to understand and not just to respond a better way of creating a good rapport.
Client mirroring is another effective way of creating a rapport. Mirroring involves simulating the client’s intonation and loud voice to match their energy. Mirroring creates synchronization of bonds, and its useful, particularly when having tough and difficult conversations with the client. Another way of establishing rapport mentioned in the effective communication essay is by keeping my word and being reliable to the client. Keeping your word means avoid under-promising and overpromising and also communicating to them when the schedule changes. By staying true to your words and keeping promises creates not only a good rapport but also creates a culture of trust between the client and the nurse (Allison & Hardin, 2019).
Effective Communication Strategies
The first strategy to employ explored in this section of effective communication essay is getting to the point. Benny already has many things running in his mind and probably has difficulty in concentrating and thus would not listen to long statements. Being succinct ensures that Benny understands the information. This is done by rehearsing some targeted questions on his alcohol usage, for example; “Do you feel happy or sad after using alcohol? Such questions like the one noted herein effective communication essay are easy to answer because they are leading, and the patient does not have to think so hard about them.
The other useful strategy to employ is creating a more personal connection with Benjamin. The provider-patient relationship grows on a background of strong interpersonal bonds between them. Sitting next to the patient has been proven to improve their satisfaction from 9th to the 43rd percentile and the overall health outcome. BATHE is another tool that only takes five minutes to use, and it is effective in ensuring quality encounters between patients and the healthcare provider as in Benny's case. BATHE creates open-ended conversations between the nurse and the patient and leads to a strong connection that surpasses the clinical needs of the patient (Thomas et al., 2019).
Use effective communication skills to encourage education through the teach-back mechanism to enlighten Benny on how he can handle some of his mental health issues. In addition to the teach-back mechanism, use simple language that is understandable to Benny. He understands English so, therefore, use English to communicate. Speak at a measured space to ensure that Benny does not miss a single piece of information. Also, ask targeted questions using the tech-back mechanism. Also, take time to listen to Benny's feedback and get to know if he learned from the interaction and communication. Using education material enables the client’s family to review the information at their own time and help him cope with his mental health education (Pace et al., 2017).
Technology is another strategy for enhancing communication. The use of electronics, such as tablets and smartphones, would be a good way to implement provider-patient information. The physician should post the information as Word or PDF documents that Benny could access easily through a click of a button. Patients with high technology use reported better satisfaction and a better outcome.
Barriers to Communication
Benny is an Aboriginal patient, and the most likely challenges include contextual barriers to communication such as racism especially when the therapist is non-Aboriginal. The challenges that Aboriginals face include marginalization, a paternalist attitude of the health practitioner and poor understanding of the aboriginal needs. Other challenges include inadequate or total lack of aboriginal staff, and also poor coordination within services (Shahid et al., 2013). All the above challenges are within the context of the aboriginal culture and may hinder the flow of communication between Benny and the non-Aboriginal staff.
To overcome these challenges, the health service providers should be taught on the aboriginal culture, and those who don’t go for the training should read about the culture and interact with people from the culture to help understand their needs and ways of life. The physician can learn some phrases and aboriginal greetings to help develop a good rapport with Benny. The physician would also advocate for the recruitment of more Aboriginal staff to help patients feel homelier at the facility (Shahid et al., 2013). The other possible barrier is the wrong communication style for a nineteen-year-old Benny. Use a more engaging and active communication to help keep him involved. The other challenge is the loss of privacy and confidentiality. Communicating in a private area free from distractions helps win the client's trust from the beginning.
What are the ethical considerations based on the case of effective communication essay?
One of the ethical consideration started herein effective communication essay is privacy and confidentiality. Benny is a teenager and values his privacy for the sake of his public image amongst his peers (Sussman & DeJong, 2018). He needs to ensure that whatever kind of personal information is safe and can get to nobody else apart from the health practitioner. Breaking privacy is against ethical code for patient privacy and confidentiality.
The other ethical consideration is consent. Informed consent is crucial in decision making on which therapeutic method to use for Benny's case. Benny is not mentally stable, and the practitioner needs to be sure that Benny is aware of what is going on and begin by explaining the whole process to Benny before he consents for any procedure or session (Sussman & DeJong, 2018).
Inter-professional Involvement
The other health professionals to consider communicating with regarding Benny's case include a social worker, a psychiatrist, and a counselling psychologist. The ethical considerations during inter-professional communication include the breach of privacy and confidentiality (Lindqvist, 2016). Benny may not wish his story to fly across the departments of the facility. He may also fail to give consent to the multidisciplinary approach. Some of the critical challenges outlined in the context of effective communication essay that would arise with the interprofessional communication are lack of trust from the client, lack of awareness among the professionals on their role in communication. There may also be a lack of a common language and poor interpretation of the client's confidentiality. The last of the challenges is the extensive amount of time taken to provide therapy for the patient (Lindqvist, 2016).
Conclusion
Considering the overall readings developed within this effective communication essay, it can be stated that communication is a dynamic, multi-dimensional, and complex process that health providers need to understand if they wish to communicate with the client effectively. In Benny's case, the practitioner needs to understand the socio-cultural background to come up with an appropriate intervention being he is a teenager. The inter-professional communication approach is appropriate yet may pose significant challenges when not handled appropriately.
References
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Hirst, L., & Bradley, H. (2020). How to build an effective rapport with patients. Effective communication essay BDJ Student, 27(1), 40-41. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41406-019-0091-4
Lindqvist, S. (2016). Interprofessional communication and its challenges. Clinical communication in medicine, 159-167.
Pace, E. J., Somerville, N. J., Enyioha, C., Allen, J. P., Lemon, L. C., & Allen, C. W. (2017). Effects of a brief psychosocial intervention on inpatient satisfaction: An RCT. Family medicine, 49(9), 675.
Shahid, S., Durey, A., Bessarab, D., Aoun, S., & Thompson, S. (2013). Identifying barriers and improving communication between cancer service providers and Aboriginal patients and their families: the perspective of service providers. BMC Health Services Research, 13(1), 234. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-13-460
Sussman, N., & DeJong, S. (2018). Ethical Considerations for Mental Health Clinicians Working with Adolescents in the Digital Age. Current Psychiatry Reports, 20(12), 127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-018-0974-z
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Thomas, C., Cramer, H., Jackson, S., Kessler, D., Metcalfe, C., Record, C., & Barnes, R. K. (2019). Acceptability of the BATHE technique amongst GPs and frequently attending patients in primary care: a nested qualitative study. BMC family practice, 20(1), 121.
Weger, H., Castle Bell, G., Minei, E., & Robinson, M. (2014). The Relative Effectiveness of Active Listening in Initial Interactions. International Journal Of Listening, 28(1), 13-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/10904018.2013.813234
