Abstract
The principles of interaction between medical providers and patients are a significant topic that is addressed in many scholarly studies. The relevance of this aspect of both physicians’ and nurses’ professional practice lies in an opportunity to establish a favorable care environment and maintain a high level of communication with the population. This work aims to describe the importance of creating conditions for positive patient relationships, mechanisms and ways to increase this interaction, potential barriers and obstacles, as well as valuable skills that can contribute to improving the considered aspect of medical employees’ professional activities. As a justification base, relevant academic studies will be utilized, and the findings will be used as a background for analysis. Involving all interested parties, including managers, and following a patient-centered approach are the key principles of building positive patient relationships and maintaining a high level of public health services.
Keywords: patient, relationships, interaction, medical, professional
Among ethical issues affecting the activities of healthcare professionals, patient relationships are a significant topic that largely determines the quality of care. Maintaining a positive interaction with the target audience is a mandatory aspect of the activities of both senior and junior medical personnel. Therefore, the promotion of corresponding approaches to building the necessary communication mechanisms is of high importance as a factor influencing the success of a particular healthcare organization. Among the objectives that managers of medical units pose to subordinates, improving patient safety is a crucial performance indicator, which, in turn, is impossible to achieve without maintaining positive relationships between providers and the target audience. In the process of this communication, some problems and obstacles may arise, but honing appropriate skills may help overcome these barriers and build a productive interaction process.
Importance of Positive Patient Relationships
For healthcare specialists, constant interaction with patients is a prerequisite for professional activity. Accordingly, the higher the quality of this communication is, the more likely it is that the outcomes of treatment and care will be positive due to obtaining comprehensive information about a particular case and applying the necessary approaches to work. From a managerial perspective, the importance of maintaining positive communication between physicians and the target audience influences not only the performance of a particular department but also the credibility of the entire institution. Therefore, an unbiased and responsible approach to building patient relationships is part of the work of providing medical services to the population.
Creating the necessary conditions for interaction is not limited only to discussing health issues. Fuzzell et al. (2018) conduct a study aimed at revealing the importance of maintaining communication with parents in pediatric departments. According to the authors, children cannot be held accountable for themselves, and productive communication with parents is a prerequisite for maintaining a positive care environment (Fuzzell et al., 2018). In addition, if managers encourage the medical staff to follow the code of ethical interaction with patients, this contributes to both enhancing the quality of work and obtaining objective data on the health of the population. Fuzzell et al. (2018) note that trust is one of the significant aspects of provider-patient interaction. If this indicator is low, care effectiveness may be poor. Thus, promoting positive relationships between healthcare employees and the public is an essential nuance of managerial practice.
Enhancing Patient Safety Through Effective Patient Relationships
Since patient safety is a crucial aspect of the work of any healthcare institution, increasing this indicator is possible through productive communication and building trust. Heads of structural medical departments should pay attention to the interaction of subordinates of different ranks with the target audience in order to prevent poor communication at any level. In addition, as Conroy, Feo, Boucaut, Alderman, and Kitson (2017) state, employees are to anticipate patient needs, which is achieved through practice and the continuous expansion of knowledge about the principles of interaction with the public. Any patient requests and questions require feedback from the clinic staff. Otherwise, people may be dissatisfied with healthcare services, which, in turn, is fraught with the distrust of the quality of medical care. Therefore, improving this interaction correlates with enhancing patient outcomes directly.
As methods for assessing staff knowledge regarding strengthening relationships with the public, managers can apply special control practices. For instance, in their study, Razzaghi and Afshar (2016) suggest that heads of medical departments pay attention to semi-structured interviews as one of the mechanisms for obtaining data about the knowledge of subordinates. The authors provide examples of employee responses and note that interview participants confirm the importance of interacting with patients before making specific decisions regarding the specifics of treatment and care (Razzaghi & Afshar, 2016). Thus, improving the quality of communication is associated with the safety of the target audience.
Relevant Mechanisms to Maintain Patient Relationships
Today, advances in the digital technology sphere are applied in healthcare, and this benefit may be used to good effect as an opportunity to improve provider-patient relationships. Liang et al. (2017) consider special information systems that some Chinese clinics offer to the public. The authors argue that this approach fosters patient confidence in physicians’ and nurses’ work by giving people a chance to receive comprehensive and detailed information regarding any questions freely (Liang et al., 2017). This mechanism involves the full disclosure of data that people may need while solving health issues, for instance, the working conditions of individual specialists, the nature of treatment, and other significant nuances. This online interaction technique simplifies communication and, consequently, helps increase public satisfaction with the quality of healthcare services.
Traditional methods of interaction become obsolete, which explains the need for a transition to more modern and advanced strategies of interaction between medical staff and patients. Leaders of healthcare organizations can implement appropriate interactive programs for the exchange of information with the public, thereby maintaining productive communication and increasing the safety of citizens. Liang et al. (2017) emphasize the importance of fairness in such a system of interaction since everyone can receive the necessary advice and qualified assistance. Thus, the introduction of modern mechanisms for establishing relationships between medical providers and the population is the key to many valuable prospects.
Problems and Obstacles in Patient Relationships
Despite many healthcare managers’ efforts, some obstacles arise in the relationships between patients and medical providers, which is fraught with public discontent with the quality of specialists’ work and the decline in the status of specific clinics. Based on the aforementioned principles of introducing online communication, which simplifies the interaction mechanism, access to health services may be difficult due to the conventions of physicians’ activities. According to Alegría, Alvarez, Ishikawa, DiMarzio, and McPeck (2016), some patients cannot take help medical employees due to doctors’ busy schedules or other factors, for instance, disability. The authors also draw attention to cultural obstacles that may occur if managers apply inadequate policies to control the activities of employees (Alegría et al., 2016). In case of low qualifications, some physicians may be biased towards the target audience and disrespect the needs of those who seek help. This behavior is unacceptable and requires managers to take appropriate penalties.
Creating favorable conditions for interaction between healthcare providers and patients should be carried out in accordance with the conditions of existing legislation. Alegría et al. (2016) argue that such communication takes place at the micro-level, which is controlled locally by the heads of medical institutions. In case clinic managers neglect the law and do not take into account the right of citizens to receive qualified services, this is a significant obstacle to the formation of positive relationships. Therefore, following the conditions of modern interaction should be monitored by responsible persons in each individual clinic.
Relevant Skills to Improve Patient Relationships
One of the main principles of medical specialists’ work, which allows improving the quality of relationships with the population, is a patient-centered approach. Maatouk-Bürmann et al. (2016) note that such a practice helps achieve additional significant perspectives, in particular, improving treatment outcomes, health education, and other important aspects of interaction. The authors also remark that honing skills of appropriate professional behavior should be promoted by clinic managers among subordinates in order to avoid conflicts with the population (Maatouk-Bürmann et al., 2016). Employees with insufficient practical experience can take special training courses where they learn the basics of provider-patient communication and gain valuable attainments and knowledge. The skill of listening, as Maatouk-Bürmann et al. (2016) state, play the same important role as other abilities because trusting relationships may be built only if a medical employee is able to give detailed feedback on the information received from a person. Therefore, ongoing training should be promoted in order to create an advanced and effective communication system between healthcare providers and patients.
Conclusion
In order to establish positive relationships between medical providers and patients, clinic managers should promote special strategies that encourage employees to increase their professional competence and overcome potential obstacles and barriers. The significance of this activity is explained by the need to build trustful communication, which, in turn, can help improve the quality of treatment and care and enhance the safety of the population. The introduction of modern interaction systems and the implementation of employee training programs are valuable strategies on the way to patient-centered care as one of the most important principles of qualified medical services.
References
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Conroy, T., Feo, R., Boucaut, R., Alderman, J., & Kitson, A. (2017). Role of effective nurse-patient relationships in enhancing patient safety. Nursing Standard, 31(49), 53-63.
Fuzzell, L. N., LaJoie, A. S., Smith, K. T., Philpott, S. E., Jones, K. M., & Politi, M. C. (2018). Parents’ adherence to pediatric health and safety guidelines: Importance of patient-provider relationships. Patient Education and Counseling, 101(9), 1570-1576.
Liang, C., Gu, D., Tao, F., Jain, H. K., Zhao, Y., & Ding, B. (2017). Influence of mechanism of patient-accessible hospital information system implementation on doctor-patient relationships: A service fairness perspective. Information & Management, 54(1), 57-72.
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