Effective Patient Communication

As a healthcare professional, effective communication is arguably the most important trait to have next to patient care. The ability to communicate efficiently can make or break you as a respected healthcare professional, but even more importantly it can alter the patient’s treatments and the fluid transition from pre hospital to hospital care. Patient advocacy is one of the major keys in communication for a pre hospital caretaker in particular. We as pre hospital personnel need to paint a clear picture of our patient’ condition in order to accurately treat our patients and forewarn the receiving hospital of what they are about to have at their doorstep. In the words of a 10 year mobile intensive care nurse, “the most important aspect of radio contact by the paramedic is the ability to accurately describe what the priority

Knowing what you want to say and how you want to describe a patients condition before attempting to communicate can make the process go smooth and it helps everyone involved. At the end of the day it is all about the patient and the best way that you can improve patient care is by working together and communicating details clearly and in a timely manner. During my radio room shift at loma linda university there are a few things I learned from observing radio calls. I heard some very impressive radio calls and I heard a fair share of bad radio calls. What I learned from the good radio calls was that in order to effectively communicate the condition of the patient, it helps to have a clear understanding of medical terminology, protocols, treatment priorities, and the ability to talk loudly and clearly. Taking into account that the MICN has to write down everything that you are conveying and then translate that information of to the appropriate