Critical Thinking for Health Care Professionals 1 Goal Critical Thinking and use of language and logic to improve

client services / satisfaction levels in health care services Overview Health communication can be simply defined to be a detailed study and wide use of various kinds of communication strategies in order to influence and convey both individual and community decisions which may be, in the long-run, helpful in enhancing health. The domains of communication and health are interconnected with health communication. The same has also been widely recognized to be an important and essential element of all the relevant efforts which helps in the improvement of both personal and public health. Though it is a well- known fact that communication is a very crucial skill that very employee in the organization possess, occasionally the same seems to be lacking in the health care industry and the professionals in the industry. Recently an article that was published in the Wall Streets Journal revealed that there was a lack of proper communication in the operating rooms. This lack of communication was a result of nurses and other technicians in the operating rooms failing to speak if something was noticed going wrong. The reason for this sort of lack of responsibility to act is that in such kind of situations they felt that it was the physician who is the primary person to communicate. Today various kinds of efforts are being taken by hospitals internationally to enhance communication within the firms. The main reason for hospitals to strive hard to improve communication is many accrediting bodies like JCAHO etc., are directing hospitals to improve the same in order to get accredited (J. James, 2008).

Critical Thinking for Health Care Professionals 2 This particular concept of health communication can be a contributing factor for many other aspects such as: a. Patient-health professional relations b. Individuals adhering to different kinds of clinical recommendations. c. The exposure and use of health information by individuals. d. Public health campaigns and messages their development. e. Risk communication. f. Educating consumers on how to access to the different public health care and systems. Effective Health Communication to individuals can assist in creating proper awareness of different kinds of health risks and the possible cure to such risks. Apart from just making them aware of all such risks, it is also possible to motivate and educate them with appropriate skills to reduce such risks and also getting empathetically supported by others who are with similar health risks. Effective Health Communication may also play a vital role in effecting the demand of

health services in a positive or negative manner (weknowmore.org, 2009). To be clearer, health communication may increase the demand for apt health services and also may decrease the demand for not so apt or inappropriate health services whichever are prevailing. It also can help individuals in making choice of complex decisions like, health plan selection, available health care or service providers and treatments etc (Dushkin.com, 2010). In the recent past, the focus on health communication has contributed to promotion of health care and also in various kinds of disease prevention in many areas. One quotable development is the interpersonal and group interaction in clinical situation being improved

Critical Thinking for Health Care Professionals 3 drastically. Interpersonal and group interaction is nothing but care providerpatient, care provider-care provider and also among the members of a health care team. This improvement was made possible by giving proper training to health professionals and also patients about effective communication skills. Likewise, the social impact theory also holds very good significance in the above context. According to the social impact theory, an individual is likely to respond increasingly to social influence and this is likely to augment with aspects such as strength, immediacy and number (Changing Minds.Org, 2010). The culture and climate amid organizations helps in the adoption of societal norms that possibly put forth social influence. Social influence takes place when the thoughts or deeds of an individual are affected by others surrounding him. The theory also states that there could be instances wherein people occasionally tending to resist societal pressure. This kind of resistance is likely to takes place when the societal impact is divided amid strong and distance target groups. Ultimately, it can be said that those who want to put into practice novel approaches like knowledge management, should not miscalculate and under judge the power of societal factors that have an impact on their target groups. Insurgence against novel approaches can be tremendously mordant, and is not always perceptible on the facade. However it is also possible to use these same set of social processes in order to win over strong associates and transform agents, and use them to speed up the development of organization-wide reception of novel approaches. Responsiveness and knowledge using these processes both for the individual and organizations advantage are the fundamental success attributes.

Critical Thinking for Health Care Professionals 4 Bibliography Changing Minds.Org. (2010). Social Impact Theory. Retrieved February 01, 2010, from Changing Minds. Org: http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/social_impact.htm Dushkin.com. (2010). Normativesocial Influence - Social Norms`. Retrieved February 01, 2010, from Dushkin.com: http://www.dushkin.com/connectext/psy/ch15/impact.mhtml J. James, I. &. (2008). Improving the Art and Science of Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. Mayo Clinic Proceedings (pp. 559-562). Proquest. weknowmore.org. (2009, May 05). Breaking Down Social Influence. Retrieved February 01, 2010, from weknowmore.org: http://weknowmore.org/blog/?p=712