HCA 320 Week 2: Communication In The Workplace

Assignment Week 2

HCA 320
10/17/2011
Sandra Anderson

Assignment Week 2
Communication is a critical in our everyday life’s, especially in the work place. There are many issues that can impact all employees involve, one that is the number one problem is communication that relates to gender and cultural differences. This can impact from mangers, supervisor, staff and clients. “[Gender of male and female affects communication between employees, many of the time especially in females having favoritism. The communication between the two parties is very often and in email, text, phone, and written form. With the male gender communication is though in -person, phone or written. They each have form of language used to communicate
between staff members that only one of those sexual genders would be able to understand. Gender can also affect the tone in which the communication is translated in. One can be offensive and not clear to understand by the second party. Many males do not ask enough questions regarding their health care situation.]”. Women tend to ask more question and explanations regarding their healthcare, as men just want to get in and out and ask only what is needed. This can affect what information should have been received in order to have a better understanding when receiving treatment.
The best way to correct this problem is to have every communication channel from phone, text and email is to have a communication with others in a tone and matter that is understandable for every gender to understand. Be mindful of each one and take in consideration with each gender to be understanding if one has too many questions or not enough questions. Maybe also take the time to explain or ask if the patient has any questions or has a good understanding of what just happened. Also make sure they have the correct understanding of medication and dosage for their treatment. This communication must be clear and easy to understand for any patient.

Cultural differences too play a large impact in the communication between the provider, patient, co-workers etc.
According the text “[It is especially difficult to ensure that patients are fully informed concerning their medical options when the patients and their caregivers speak different languages. Nearly 25 million adults in the United States do not speak English proficiently (“Demographics,” 2002). Non-English speakers are less satisfied with medical care than are Caucasians or members of ethnic and racial minorities (Weech-Maldonado et al., 2003).At one inner-city hospital, more than one-fourth of Latino parents said language barriers discourage them from using medical facilities (Flores, Abreu, Olivar, & Kastner, 1998). These parents felt that the scarcity of Spanish-speaking physicians led to their children being misdiagnosed or given the wrong medicine. (Box 6.3 describes the experiences of a Spanish-speaking woman in a U.S. hospital.)]”Cultural different impact the communication barrier because of language difference has lead to so many misunderstandings between patient and physician; this can lead to serious problems if the correct diagnoses I not found for the patient. It can lead to non needed medication or treatment causing more harm than treating the health issue at
hand.

The best way to correct this issue is to have an interpreter that speaks more than one language. This will ensure the proper symptoms are explained to the provider this way the misunderstanding does not happen and lead to serious consequences. The health care should also have some written lecture in different languages, that way everybody of every cultural can understand the information provided. This is a very serious matter that happens so often with many non Americans. My personal experience my father in law does not speak English, and his wife is the same. He was in a very serious car accident and until he reached the hospital, they were able to find a nurse that spoke Spanish. His children had to translate what the officer was telling the wife of what happen, this can be so frustrating knowing she had many questions to ask. When we all reached the hospital again, the communication in the difference in language caused a problem because the wife had questions and concerns that she felt was not being addressed to him. This were I feel the healthcare organization should have someone on hand to translate for these patient and his family.

References
Du Pre, A. (2005). Communicating about health: Current issues and perspectives (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.

Habla espanol?. (2004, Summer). Marketing Health Services, 24(2), 5.