Healthcare services represent an industry marled by special communication patterns and human interactions. The language of management reflects these factors and principles including some medical terminology and traditions of medical establishments. The outcome of the physician-client interaction depends on the ability to engage the client in decision making and share the control and power in the relationship Medical staff build their communication skills by studying and practicing techniques, trial-and-error, observing role-models, experience, and gaining comfort with the use of their own intuition.
For instance, “the contract language also can ensure that the physician agrees to provide information that will allow the plan to determine” medical history and healthcare services provided (Williams and Torrens 2001p. 176). Facework and politeness theory points to the need to consider the client and management staff’s sense of self-esteem, autonomy, and solidarity in conversation. Both these systems of management are inward-directed.
That is, their primary purpose is the optimal use of human, material, and informational resources available within the healthcare field. Healthcare services use concepts and terms from a variety of disciplines, including quantitative, social, and behavioral sciences to solve marketing problems. They recognize that management is interdisciplinary in nature, and that theoretical models and constructs are useful in establishing policies and making decisions.
Special attention should be paid to language barriers and differences typical for the healthcare field. Each party wants to maintain a sense of personal competency and control. An attack on these or on the person’s poise or sense of belonging or being liked is called face threats. the nurse is careful about the language used and asks questions gently to help the client save face. A complicated balance between considerations of facework and politeness and the necessity for client involvement point to the need for further research to supplement successful intuitive strategies that are difficult to teach. Nurses understand the importance of tact in engaging the client’s participation.
Attempts to overcome a language barrier with clients and families is another way of demonstrating respect. Check with the hospital’s patient advocate or human resources department to identify employees who could serve as interpreters. Being respectful embodies assertiveness. When we show the respect we are granting the other person’s right to be treated with dignity and consideration, while at the same time not ignoring our own needs to manage our time effectively and carry out the role for which we are qualified. Being respectful means acknowledging others’ needs to be attended to, understood, and helped within the limits of nurses’ abilities and time.
One factor that facilitates nurses’ showing respect is a strong value that others have the right to be treated with regard for their feelings of worth. Nurses with less well-integrated values of human dignity might be less consistent in demonstrating their respect. “The challenge for integration, much less acceptance, is complex and involves overcoming language barriers, gaining cultural knowledge and information, acquiring skills to broker systems of beliefs” (Williams and Torrens 2001, p. 3000).
In sum, the healthcare field requires the special language of management and physician-patient interaction. The language of management involves medical terms and specific processes typical for this industry.. Everyone acknowledges the importance of communication because it allows medical staff to interact with. Since nurses spend more time with patients than do other health care professionals, it is particularly important that nurses realize that both communication and language are inextricably connected to health care.
References
Williams, S., Torrens, R. R. (2001). Introduction To Health Services. Delmar Cengage Learning; 6 edition.