Health Care Communication New ND

Communication:
An Essential Aspect of Healthcare
Rohit Pradhan, PhD

Purpose
• Understanding healthcare communication
• Frameworks to understand health
• The role and importance of healthcare

communication
2
What is health??
We all know what it is, it must be difficult to define!
‘A state of complete physical, mental, and social

well-being, and not merely the absence of
disease or infirmity.’
-World Health Organization definition
3
Communication: Who Says What to
Whom?
• ‘a process by which information is exchanged between
through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior’
• Aristotle: Mostly linear process involving speaker and listener
• Effective speakers “package” their message using one or
more of three persuasive means
4
5
Why Health Communication?
• Emerged as a defined area of study in the 1960s
• Communication is therapeutic itself!
• The importance of social factors
• Health care can communication can be persuasive in nature
6
Transactional Model
• ‘People collaborate to construct meaning in a

process of ongoing, reciprocal influence’
• Communication happens between two people
7
Transactional Model:
The three levels
Collaboratio
n
Multiple
levels of
meaning
Importance
of culture
and context
8
Collaboration
• Meaning does not lie in discrete unit of information

or with just one person
• ‘I am pregnant!’
• Non-verbal cues
• Patient-provider communication in the transactional
model: who’s to blame?
9
Multiple Levels of Meaning
• Content
• Denotative or literal?
• Relational level
• How something is said?
• Who says it?
• When?
• What they do not say?
10
Culture and Context
‘man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he

himself has spun’
People actively shape the meanings that merge both at the

content and relational levels 11
Culture and Context
Low context countries High context countries
• Communication: Linear, • Communication: Indirect,
dramatic, precise and open harmoniously structured and
• Because words are so highly understated
valued, they are used almost • In conversation, people are
constantly. expected to speak one after
• Disagreements are another in an orderly, linear
depersonalized fashion
• Privacy and personal space are • Accuracy is valued.
highly valued. • How well something is learned
• Verbal messages are explicit and is important.
direct. • Verbal messages are indirect
• Words are valued above their • Speakers often talk around a
context point
• US, UK, Canada, Germany • Japan, China, Egypt, Saudi, Italy,
Spain
12
Healthcare Models
Biomedical Biopsychosocial
Sociocultural
13
Biomedical
• Ill health is a physical phenomenon which can be

identified, explained, and treated through physical
means
• Reductionist approach but suited to the era of
machines
• What are the communication challenges the
biomedical model represents?
14
Biopsychosocial
• Accounts for physical conditions, thoughts and

beliefs, and social contexts
• No single model works for everyone—humans are
individuals at the most fundamental level!
15
Sociocultural
Personal Social
Culture
choice dynamics
• Weight • Wealth • Shared
• Smoking • Poverty values
• Drug use • Prejudice, • Traditions
• Sedentary • Access • Rituals
Bu
pe t ar lifestyle
rso e t
na hes
lc ea
ho lw
ic e ay
s? s
• Health is neither entirely a construction of personal choices

nor social/cultural factors but a mutually reflective process16
Importance of Health
Communication
• Critical for health care encounters

• Mass media/social media and health promotion
• Personal confidence and coping mechanism
• Saves time and money
• Allows healthcare organizations to operate
effectively
• Career opportunities
17
Communication as a
Leadership Art
• Adaptability: To communicate
successfully, one must learn to
adapt to “local culture” and speak
many different “languages”
• Personal credibility: Provides
foundation for influence
• Authenticity paradox: You
cannot help being a “different
person” depending with whom
you communicate
18
Conclusion
• Healthcare communication operates in a

complex milieu
• Common source of medical errors
• Medical errors are 3 leading cause of death
rd
• Teamwork, listening, and cross-cultural skills

• Transactional perspective suggests meanings
and relationships are continually constructed.
• Interpretation is both individual as well as
socio-cultural
19
Conclusion
• Three models of healthcare

• Biomedical
• Biopsychosocial
• Sociocultural
• ‘Let’ not have a failure to communicate!’
20
The Case of Jessica Santillon
If you worked in Duke Medical public relations, what
would your communication strategy be for the following?
• Santillon family
• Lawyers
• Community
• Press
• Health care provider community
21

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Communication:

An Essential Aspect of Healthcare

Rohit Pradhan, PhD

• Understanding healthcare communication

• Frameworks to understand health

• The role and importance of healthcare

We all know what it is, it must be difficult to define!

‘A state of complete physical, mental, and social

• Emerged as a defined area of study in the 1960s

• Communication is therapeutic itself!

• The importance of social factors

• Health care can communication can be persuasive in nature

• ‘People collaborate to construct meaning in a

• Meaning does not lie in discrete unit of information

‘man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he

People actively shape the meanings that merge both at the

• Ill health is a physical phenomenon which can be

• Accounts for physical conditions, thoughts and

• Health is neither entirely a construction of personal choices

• Critical for health care encounters

• Healthcare communication operates in a

• Teamwork, listening, and cross-cultural skills

• Three models of healthcare

• ‘Let’ not have a failure to communicate!’

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