Week 1: Why is Collaboration in Healthcare Important?
Hello everyone, it’s Sandhya! Today, I want to discuss why collaboration in the healthcare field is essential and how it can be helpful in resolving poor clinician-patient communication.
Enhancing communication through collaborative practices
There have been many studies that demonstrate how communication is one of the biggest problems in healthcare. In 2010, a study conducted by an academic medical center involved researchers holding a post-discharge telephone interview, asking patients how their hospital experience could have been improved.
Four hundred thirty-nine of the 976 selected interviews included at least one suggestion for improvement, and these were categorized into 6 domains of dissatisfaction. One of the domains was labelled “Ineffective Communication.” There were 72 suggestions regarding this weak communication and 33 of them were specific to doctor communication with patients. One patient commented that she was discharged on a Friday but had to return that same night due to a low blood count, ultimately requiring a blood transfusion. She tried to tell the doctors this but the didn’t seem to listen. This patient’s experience highlights a gap in communication and trust between clinicians and patients, reflecting a lack of attentiveness to patient concerns and expectations. As a result, patients often feel dismissed and overlooked.
Another study reflected this same sense of neglect where 800 patient visits to the walk-in clinic of the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles were examined through tape recording the doctor-patient interaction and by conducting follow-up interviews. One hundred ninety-two people out of the 800 were dissatisfied with their visits due to several communication obstacles between the pediatrician and the patient’s mother. Some of these were a lack of warmth and cordiality from the doctor, failure to consider the patient’s concerns and expectations, inadequate explanation of the diagnosis, etc. These results suggest that clinician-patient communication is a large gap in the realm of healthcare and that patients are not always satisfied by their medical professionals, which is where collaboration comes into play.
With collaborative goal setting, healthcare professionals can involve the patient and their family to come to a mutual decision regarding which goals are necessary. This inclusive method allows for the patient’s needs to be meet and helps improve this prevalent issue of ineffective communication in the realm of healthcare. However, infants and individuals with certain disabilities might find it challenging to understand their goals, requiring additional support from family members to identify their priorities. This collaboration is not maximized, especially in the hospital setting, which is why I hope to demonstrate its importance through research.
Personal benefits of collaboration to patients
Other studies have shown that involving the patients themselves, their families, and other professionals in goal setting improves client’s motivation, independence, and confidence because they know now what they are working towards.
In person work this week
I will be meeting with my on-site advisor at the clinic on Wednesday (2/12) to plan which clients and goals to focus on for my study. In my next post, I will share more of these details from the meeting! Thank you for reading!
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