Discussion
Communication can be defined as the process by means of which any piece of information or message can be transmitted from one individual to another (Berry 2006). It forms an important part of almost all the important aspects of human life be it social, professional, educational or healthcare services. The process of communication is very much important as effective action on the part of the receiver depends on the effectiveness of the message conveyed. The process of communication consists of at least two entities-sender and a receiver (Corcoran 2013). The present essay intends to shed light on the process of communication in the healthcare sector between the healthcare professionals and the concerned patients. This essay sheds lights on the communication process between the heath care professional Gilliam McKeith and her patients Jane and Holly based on the video provided in the class.
The video focuses on the communication of the three characters-the health care profession Gillian McKeith, the mother Jane and her daughter Holly (McKeith 2017). The mother as well as the daughter, are suffering from the problem of obesity because of the intake of excessive junk as well as ready-made junk foods. The nutritionist Gillian McKeith, is shown as confident conversationalist who uses the process of communication as an effective tool to drive home the problems as well as the threats that are looming large for her patients Jane and Holly. Gillian can be said to be using the “Agenda Theory” of Communication, which focuses on her “ability to influence the importance placed on the topics of the public agenda” (Casmir 2013). It is pertinent to note here that the theory puts emphasis on the creation of hypothesis and thus in the initial part of the video she is found to be a making a hypothesis which relates the root cause of the problems faced by the family on the kind of food which they consume (Casmir 2013). The character Jane, on the other hand, is shown as an individual, who is not very good at using the tool of communication and therefore much of the time in the video she is just answering the queries of the nutritionist Gillian. The mother Jane, can be said to be using the “Spiral of Silence” theory of communication, which focuses on the fear of isolation and thereby the use of silence by the communicators (Casmir 2013). The daughter Holly delves most of the time in silence and does not have much to say apart from answering the occasional questions of Gillian. The nutritionist Gillian is shown as an effective communicator, who makes effective use of the various components of communication like body language, the use of questions as well as silences, various verbal as well as non-verbal techniques, active listening, and empathy towards the two patients as well as active listening. The nutritionist appears to be very confident about the kind of work that she is doing and identifies the problems and deduces the relevant results at the first glance. She uses the tool of communication to provide effective care as well as solutions to her patients and determine the problems faced by them and also to provide solutions and solve their problems in a proactive manner. According to a study, effective positive relationship between the healthcare professionals and the patients helps in the process of diagnosis (Baši? et al. 2012). Therefore, in the video we find that the healthcare expert Gillian is trying to establish an effective positive communication process with her two patients so as to help herself in the process of diagnosis. There are some barriers to the process of effective communication and therefore the health care expert wisely chooses to avoid them. Thus, we find Gillian avoiding the use of too many medical as well as scientific terms, in order to avoid the use of too much jargon and in order to make her patients clearly understand the grave danger that they are in, she even goes to the extent of using practical as well as daily day to day examples to drive home the point. Gillian in the course of her diagnosis of the two patients in the videos identifies as well as mentions several health issues faced by the two patients and the ways to avoid them. The major problem identified in the video is the problem of obesity. The start of the video, mentions that the mother as well as the daughter are “fat, unfit and unhealthy” .The nutritionist Gillian identifies the root cause of the all the problems faced by them as the effect of the overdependence on ready as well prepackaged meals. The mother herself confesses that she “does not like to go in the kitchen and use the oven to cook” and therefore her family had to depend on readymade food. The mother as well as the daughter also consume large amounts of fizzy ice crushed drinks, some of which contains large amounts of caffeine (Fryar, Carroll and Ogden 2012). According to a source, caffeine acts as a diuretic agent, which causes dehydration, which in turn causes regular headaches (Roberts 2012). This is another problem, which both the mother as well as the daughter faces. In fact, the daughter Holly faces the problem of headaches almost on a daily basis. The video also mentions the overdependence of the family on chocolates, chips, biscuits, donuts and other junk foods, which inevitably ends up killing the taste buds of the mother as well as the daughter. The lack of vegetable intake by the family also forms a major area of concern as vegetables help in providing various kinds of nutrients as well as vitamins to the body and the lack of vegetable intake gives rise to many problems. The daughter Holly herself confesses that “she hasn’t really tasted fresh vegetables since her childhood”. According to the heath care professional, the excessive amount of the fizzy drinks consumed by Holly alone every week amounts up to 82 teaspoons of sugar, which gets converted into fat inside the body and the end result of it is the obesity problem faced by her (McKeith 2017).
Effective Communication in Healthcare Sector
The rapid growth of the health care industry as well as the ever increasing number of interactions between the various healthcare professionals and their patients makes the process of communication of paramount significance. Therefore, the health care professions resort to different models as well as tools of communication like the Framing Theory, Agenda Theory, Spiral of Silence theory and various others (Casmir 2013), in order to communicate better with the patients as well as understand the problems faced by them and make them understand the kind of remedial measures that they need to follow (Guirdham 2011). In the video under consideration, the health care professional also uses different tools as well as forms of communications to drive home the various problems faced by them as well as make them understand the kinds of remedial measures that they need to follow in order to get better. The healthcare professional apparently follows the policy of hypothesis making where looking at certain things she tries to deduce the end results of them. Thus, in order to find the root cause of the problems faced by the two family members she starts by taking a look at the food items present in the refrigerator. The eatables that she finds inside the refrigerator prove that the initial hypothesis derived by her regarding the root cause of the problems faced by the family was true. The eatables found in the refrigerator of the family clearly indicate the lack of green vegetables as well as cooked food consumed by the family. Therefore, the health care professional recommends the mother as well as the daughter to eat more amounts of green vegetables as well as home-cooked food (Ogden et al. 2012). She also asks the family to reduce the amount of cold fizzy drinks consumed as they add up excessive amount of sugar inside which over the course of time gets transformed into fat, which ends up increasing the weight of the person concerned. The problem of obesity can also be overcome by the process of regular exercises as well as the giving up habit of eating too much of ready as well as pre-prepared meals (Squire 2002). The interaction of the health care professional Gillian with the mother as well as the daughter proves the fact that the mother as well as should have taken certain steps which might have helped them. Firstly, the family should not have grown so much dependent on the use of ready as well as preprocessed food items. They should have depended more on fresh as well as green vegetables. Vegetables are very effective source of vitamins as well as minerals like iron, calcium and various others, which help in the efficient functioning of the body (Lewicki et al. 2014). The mother as well as the daughter by their excessive intake of the ready and preprocessed meals gets the amount of these vitamins as well as minerals reduced in their body (Verma and Paraidathathu 2014). Therefore, the health care professional recommends the intake of fresh green vegetables. The health care professional also suggests the mother and the daughter to reduce the amount of the excessive amount of fizzy cold drinks consumed by them. These cold drinks increase the level of sugar in the body, which in return increases the level of fat content in the body (Summerbell et al. 2012). Another major problem that the intake of the cold drinks poses is that some of these contain caffeine, which indirectly causes dehydration and ultimately leads to the problems of headaches (Wagner and Heatherton 2015). The family should have followed the practice of healthy living by the practice of healthy eating as well as regular exercises.
Recommendations for Effective Communication
Effective communication forms an important aspect in the health care sector. However, there are certain barriers to the process of effective communication, which must be eliminated, in order to facilitate a smooth interaction between the health care professions and the patients (Thompson 2011). The process is very much useful as it helps the patients to relate the problems faced by them and it also helps the professionals to convey the remedial measures that need to be taken by them in a more convenient manner (Jackson 2012). However, there are some barriers as well as to the process of effective communication which needs to be come in order to achieve the desired level of results. There are several barriers to effective communication like the use of too much of professional jargon, the lack of interest, attention, and distractions as well as the irrelevance of the message or the communication to the receiver, taboos as well as emotional barriers and several others (Stacks et al. 2011). In the video under consideration, it is found that the interaction between the three characters could have been much better had it not been for the barriers to the process of effective communication (McKeith 2017). For example, in the video, the daughter Holly is found to be too much passive. The net result of this is that she hardly interacts or relates the problems faced by her to the health care professional Gillian.
The only time she interacts is when is asked to relate the problems faced by her. Her mother, on the other hand, is in a state of too much shock or surprise at the revelations made by the health care professional. She instead of using the Spiral of Silence theory of communication could have interacted with the health care expert in a more open manner to help the process of diagnosis (Casmir 2013). During the course of the entire video she is found to be just replying to the questions that are posed by Gillian. She seldom takes the initiative to ask the professional any query that she is having or the problem that she is having. The health care professional Gillian, on the other hand, though she avoids the use of too much professional jargon or other bulky scientific terms, fails to achieve the process of effective communication with her two patients. Her style of revealing the problems faced by the two patients point-blank causes both of them to go in a state of shock and the net result of it is that during the course of the entire video both the patients just reply to the questions posed by her, instead of taking the initiative themselves to try and understand the problems faced by them (Johnson 1999). Therefore, the health care professionals instead of revealing the problems point-blank should opt for a more interactive model of communication (Barkin 2013).
Conclusion
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it becomes clear that effective communication is an important aspect of the health care sector as it helps the various health care professionals to understand the problems faced by the patients and it also helps to convey the relevant sort of remedial measures that the patients need to take in order to get cure. There are some barriers to this process as well that the professionals need to take care of in order to achieve the process of effective communication. This can include coming up with effective models of communication, understanding the physical as well as the chronological growth of the patients and devising effective means to convey the relevant information to them.
References
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