Ineffective Communication In Health Care

According to the World Health Organization (2004) “Patient safety is the absence of preventable harm to a patient during the process of healthcare”. It highlights the importance of safety in healthcare through the avoidance, curtailment, reporting and investigation of medical errors that often lead to adverse effects. An adverse effect can be said to be an injury which result from or is contributed to by medical management thereby prolonging hospitalization, treatment, monitoring and resulting in disability at the time of care and/or discharge. In healthcare, human error can be considered in two ways: the system and the person approach. The person approach focuses on procedural violations and fallacy of nurses, doctors, pharmacist and all

Communication about patient safety can be categorized into: prevention of errors and responding to effects caused by errors (adverse effects). The use of effective communication techniques amongst health care team can help in the prevention of errors, whereas ineffective communication contributes immensely to its occurrence.

If ineffective communication contributes to an unfavourable event, then better effective communication skill must be applied to achieve the most favourable or optimum patient safety. There are different approaches and techniques in which healthcare personnel can work to improve patient safety and they include both verbal and the nonverbal communication as well as effective use of appropriate communication technologies.

Bramhall (2014) highlights that common barriers to effective communication for patient include environmental such as noise, lack of privacy and control, fear and anxiety, inability to explain feelings and exerting oneself to appear strong whereas healthcare professional barriers include lack of time and support, staff conflict, lack of skills to adequately cope with patient’s questions and overwhelming