Patient-Clinician Communication Summary

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Successfully communicating with patients is essential to the nursing practice. (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2014) In order to provide competent and quality care to the patient, strong communication between the healthcare team is also of great importance. Ineffective communication has not only led to decreased patient satisfaction, but has also led to increased patient harm. (Dingley, Daugherty, Derieg, and Persing, 2008) The purpose of this paper is to discuss the principles of patient-clinician communication, methods used to improve interdisciplinary communication, and ethical principles applied to patient-clinician communication.
Principles of Communication As the world of healthcare continues to grow and become more patient focused, the ways …show more content…

This can be achieved by both partners being fully engaged and able to appreciate one another’s perspectives. (Paget et al, 2012) Once respect has been achieved between the patient and clinician, it is imperative to agree on the plan of care for the patient. Each partner needs to achieve a common understanding of the course of action to be taken for the patient, including discussion of risks, benefits, goals, and outcomes. (Paget et al, 2012) The environment in which communications take place between the patient and clinician is also critical. Not only should the location be secure enough for exchange of confidential patient information, but both the clinician and patient should be comfortable and able to speak freely. (Paget et al, …show more content…

Failures in communication between the interdisciplinary team have proven to lead in patient harm and other errors. (Dingley et al. 2008) Development of communication strategies have been implemented in many different healthcare settings to assist in decreasing errors due to poor communication. Three communication techniques have been adopted by a vast amount of healthcare organizations to better facilitate communication with the interdisciplinary team, and these are use of the SBAR technique, multidisciplinary rounds, and team huddles. (Dingley et al,

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