Posted: March 22nd, 2023

Health Care

Introduction

In this paper, I evaluate my future patient-relations profession, the role of other professions working together and the skills required to communicate with them. I intend to discuss my future profession, patient relations, in comparison to two other professions that I will be working with in my future profession. In order to execute the various tasks in healthcare, there are several skills that are required by healthcare professionals. The paper will also discuss the relevant skills necessary for a patient-relations professional in communicating with doctors and nurses. Through evaluating the skills, the study will demonstrate the differences between the three professionals in a way that increases the effectiveness of healthcare roles. Each of the professionals selected involve different tasks that necessitate a different way of communicating with those of other professions. As a result, as a patient relations professional, I will require special communication skills when interacting with doctors and nurses.

Understanding My Profession

            My future profession is patient relations officer that involves the role of communicating, interacting, and relating to the patients in a healthcare setting. In fact, this profession requires good interpersonal skills, understanding, and the ability to communicate with patients effectively (Van Servellen, 2009). The roles and responsibilities of a patient care profession range from seeking what patients want, as well as communicating to them the requirements and processes of healthcare. Therefore, as a patient relations officer, my roles include working between the healthcare setting and the consistent. The roles involve transferring messages from patients to doctors to nurses and vice versa. The main reason why I chose this profession is due to the high satisfaction rate that comes with its engagement. I derive great satisfaction from serving people well, particularly when they feel that my efforts have been important to them. Witnessing the recovery of the patients around will give me satisfaction, contentment, and inner peace. As such, I will require numerous skills to fully accomplish the duties of my profession in the wide range of healthcare settings. Most of the skills revolve around communication, understanding healthcare procedures, understanding the psychology of patients and knowledge of the different people working together with healthcare settings.

Understanding an Interdisciplinary Team

In my role in patient relations officer, I will work closely with doctors and nurses. Indeed, this is due to the reason that my line of duty and the nature of tasks involved with physicians and nurses are interrelated. Whereas I relate with patients to understand the problems, I lack the proficiency solving them through pharmacological processes. As a result, I will collaborate with nurses who plan and offer medical and nursing care to patients, and doctors who engage in the examinations of the diseases, diagnostic procedures, and develop effective models of treatment. Any public health relations officer with the intentions of exploring the heights of success in their profession ought to ensure that they have vital communication skills. In essence, having sufficient communication skills ensures that all important patient and medical data is communicated to not only the patients but the doctors and nurses as well.

Nurses are caregivers who are trained to offer clinical care to patients (St Sauver, Warner & Yawn, 2013). Their tasks involve understanding the care needed by patients before recommending and applying the relevant treatment required by the patients. Since patients have complex and multifaceted needs, nurses must have the ability to understand the specific problems that face patient and offer them the necessary care as part of the remedy to their health predicaments. Nursing is a profession that caters for the needs of patients through the application of interventions. In healthcare settings, nurses play the biggest roles because they are the ones tasked with ensuring that patients are attended to, treated, given the prescribed drugs and observe hygiene. In such a capacity, nurses require high qualifications in nursing and clinical care that will enable them to administer medication, recommend further attention while offering care.

On the other hand, doctors are the professionals who tackle serious and acute health operations, procedures and services in the sense that they listen to the patients, recommend laboratory tests, diagnose illness, and recommend drugs along with care (St Sauver, Warner & Yawn, 2013). Therefore, doctors play a very important role that is related to the conditions of patients. Doctors also address emergencies and attend to acute scenarios that comprise emergencies and surgical operations. A doctor should possess high academic and educational qualifications that qualify them as medical doctors. These skills enable them to understand the health problems facing patients and offer solutions. A doctor should have high social skills to interact with patients in order to detect their problems. A doctor should also have skills in interrogation and patient psychology to help him/her understand the history of illness affecting the patients. A doctor should have a good memory to remember his/her patients and follow up their course of treatment.

Interdisciplinary Team

            The three professions that include patient relations, nurses, and doctors will work together through cooperation and collaboration in the healthcare setting to increase effectiveness of therapeutic procedures. Whereas the patient relations professional welcomes patients to the facility and determines their needs, the doctors conduct diagnosis while nurses offer the actual care. Therefore, the three professions will work together with each performing a specific task towards patient satisfaction.

The two sets of skills that I require to communicate with the doctors and nurses are respect and clarity. I will rely on these two skills to ensure that the three professions collaborate efficiently and that there is credible and constructive communication among the three professions in a manner that facilitates the attainment of goals. Indeed, respect is very important in facilitating communication and collaboration between the three professions since each is independent and there is none above the rest. As a patient relations professional, I must approach and treat doctors and nurses with respect, who should as well give nothing less.

Clarity and concision are very important skills because they shorten the time taken to communicate and achieve the course of communication. Through these skills, I will make my messages to the doctors and nurses concise and clear. Therefore, they will easily understand what I am saying and act on it. Once I realize the patient’s concern, I will inform the nurse or doctor immediately in very clear and brief terms to make them understand the problem at hand. Through clarity, there will be no misunderstanding in the communication process, and the attainment of outcomes will be high.

Conclusion

In summary, the discussion has evaluated the relationship between my healthcare profession and the two professions namely doctors and nurses regarding the skills required for communication. The discussion has looked at various skills that a patient care professional requires to communicate with doctors and nurses effectively. The two skills required for the collaboration of doctors, nurses, and patient relation officer include respect and clarity. Respect increases a professional and constructive rapport, which in turn, enhances cooperation. On the other hand, the clarity and concision increase the effectiveness of communication. The most important consideration of this evaluation was that healthcare professional often meet and interact with people of different professions and they need specific skills in communicating with them.