Why is communication so important in healthcare

What did you say just a second ago? I didn’t quite get that. Communication between the patient and the medical staff can be a real problem. Patients get confused, they can make mistakes, when under stress. And you get especially stressed when you’re at a hospital far away from your home. A couple of years ago I wrote an article about healthcare and the illiterate patient.
I had such a problem with my father. He had to be taken by ambulance to University Medical Center. He was so worried about being far away from home, that he cut the name and address portion from his checks and put them into his pockets. I asked him why would he do such strange things, he answered that he was worried about being separated and getting lost. It is really hard to imagine such a thing for me. To be scared like that. Nowadays there shouldn’t be any illiterate people, however because of many misunderstandings and not fully explained things, problems occur. People often get confused and lost somewhere in the healthcare system. It may be due to poor communication with the medical staff, or just being anxious about the visit. Language can also be a barrier when someone is not fluent at it. There are times that being in a new place can really affect you. Especially when you’re ill as well. When nervous, you tend to get distracted, you may not hear what the doctor or nurse have said. The medical staff also makes mistakes, they assume that patients know things that may not be obvious to them. You have to remember that if something is not completely clear, you should ask the medical personnel to explain it once again. You are there to get better, and doing something wrong, is not in anyone’s interest.
There are many kinds of misunderstandings, a popular one is concerning drugs that should be taken with food. There have been cases of really strange misunderstandings. One woman thought that taking drugs with food meant that the pill should be wrapped in cheese and eaten. You might laugh, because you know that it means taking the medication with a light meal. However, not all things are obvious to people. Even I had my time I wish to forget. It was still before I became a nurse, during my first pregnancy. I had some vitamins prescribed by my doctor and should take one tablet daily with meals. What I did was take one tablet with meals, but I took one with every meal. My doctor pointed out the mistake I made when I came to him for a new prescription. He noticed that the vitamins run too quickly and explained how I should take them properly. Communication is a vital point especially when it comes to healthcare.
We all need to know how to take our medications, do our exercises and know all genera information about healthcare. You shouldn’t be shy about asking a doctor, nurse or a pharmacist about these things. As medical staff, we too sometimes forget ourselves that there are people who don’t understand what we mean. We use medical terms all the time, and forget that some people might be unfamiliar with them. One time, there was a immigrant family in the hospital. An interpreter helped us communicate with them. We gave instructions that the father should save his urine for the next 24 hours and he got a large plastic container. However, the family did not understand it well, they came for more containers, which we found odd. It appeared that they thought that the whole family should have been saving urine, all in the same containers. You should never assume something is clear to someone.
Listen to what the doctors tell you, it is the most important thing you should do as a patient. If you do not understand something, ask them to explaing. If you keep doing it that way, you’ll be on a good way to getting healthy.

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