Effective Communication Paper
Xavier Vilar
HCS 325/ Health Care Management
Ms. Debra Baker
October 27, 2011

When examining communication, people have to remember that this is the most important skill that a person has to master in life. Everyone in the world spend most of the entire day trying to communicate verbally, non-verbally, in writing, speaking, and listening to others. Many know some barriers that may interrupt communication like: gender, age, developmental level, culture, diversity influences, disabilities, stress, emotion, knowledge, listening skills, and non-verbal interpretations (Tamparo 2000). All of these barriers can effect how teams and group communication process can impact organizations. By exploring how gender and cultural differences impact communication through co-workers, managers, patients, families, and caregivers can help us understand how important communication is important to an organization and how sharing information; ideas are important. Every organization should always identify any way to make improvements in communication between staff and patient.

Team and Group Communication Process In Morton Plant Hospital, they are always striving to be the best communicators in the Bay Care Health System. Employees at Morton Plant know the only way effective communication takes place is when they listen first, knowing to be cultural sensitive, reduce stress and fear, identifying persons with impeding disabilities and to be clear to patients and co-workers. The only way this can be accomplished is to accept co-workers and patients as they are. We can not rush interactions between staff member to staff member or patient to staff members because this is where important information is transferred to one another and if we rush this process then information can be left out or even missed. There six important issues that health care workers should remember according to Du Pre (2005). Communication is crucial, it is an important source, it can save time and money, it helps health care facilities operate effectively, mass media can help people learn about health and helps us stay safe. Now, it can be seen that effective communication between patient and staff or staff to staff can be the differences between a good outcomes to a bad outcome.

Gender, Cultural, and Technologically Differences Every signal one person does not interpret one message the same way. It is when people in the health care industry can find cultural differences. When it comes from Patients Disposition it makes patients believe that they cannot be part of the medical dialogues. Socioeconomic factors like education level may be a type of influence how actively a patient participates in their medical dialogues. Gender differences are another communication barrier. Women tend to ask more question then men and they seem too more responsible for the health of the family members as well. Language differences are difficult to ensure that the patients are really informed concerning their medical treatment. Patients who do not speak English well are usually not satisfied with the medical treatment they received during their visit to the hospital. Due to the fact that English is not the primary language, critical information will be missed and lost. Disabilities are another factor that can harm communication. Say the nurse has a patient that cannot hear well nor read well and does not have a hiring aid to help. How do we effectively communicate the information to the patient? Patients with disabilities are more often frustrated with how their treatment is going. Some patients make sure that health care givers treat the disabilities as the most important thing about them or that they do not see the disability as something that will get in the way of their communication (Covey 1989). Technology also plays a major factor, since this is the age of computers. Computers now can relay messages faster then ever and by doing so the ability of formal communication and speaking directly to an individual is rear (Covey 1989). This can hurt a health care system. Sometimes when messages are written the person on the other side can decode the message the wrong way and that’s when problems start to happen. Improvements There many ways that communication can be improved in the health care system. Some of the ways communication can improve are to have annual training in communicating in a group setting, hire people who speak critical languages to help the relationship between providers and patient, have medically trained personnel who deal with patients with disabilities to ensure that they understand what is taking place with their care. Technology can also have room for improvement. Computers can help providers send messages faster to other departments. By improving these small steps, the bridge of communication is complete.

Conclusion Examining communication is important in our life span. This is something that should be master by everyone around the world. Being an effective communicator is paramount to ensure that the message does not get lost. Looking back at the beginning it is founded that they are many different types of barriers that can block communication. Some have been identify such as communication in teams, patients with disabilities, language barriers, cultural differences, and technology. All of these barriers can harm communication but by improving the way we communicate the information to the patient by overcoming the barriers the bridge that separates now becomes the bridge that communicates.

Reference Page

Covey, S.R. (1989). The seven habits of highly effective people: Restoring the character ethic. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, Inc.

DU PRÉ, A. (2005). COMMUNICATING ABOUT HEALTH: CURRENT ISSUES AND PERSPECTIVES. NEW YORK, NY: MCGRAW-HILL.

TAMPARO, C.T., & WILBURTA, Q.L. (2000). THERAPEUTIC COMMUNICATIONS FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS (2ND ED). CANADA: DELMAR