Communication Flashcards
List some reasons why might a person delay seeking dental care for toothache?
Financial reasons
Being unable to take time off work
Dental anxiety
Dentists attitudes and language barriers
The main trigger for attendance for toothache is an increase in pain intensity or frequency combined with one or more of the following factors…
- Sleep loss
- Change in symptom type or quality
- New information or awareness of services
- Failure of self care
- Failure of formal care
- Anticipation of future problems and ability to attend
How many patients present to their dentist when they have an acute problem?
1/3
How often to patients wait before attending for treatment for dental pain?
2 weeks
List some evidence-based approaches that can be adopted for children attending with low levels of dental fear
- Rapport building
- Voice control
- Distraction
- Modelling
- Memory reconstruction
- Environmental change
List some approaches that can be used for adults with low levels of dental fear
- Enhancing the sense of control
- Cognitive distraction
- Environmental change
For adults with moderate levels of dental anxiety what information about their treatment can you provide which is important?
- Information about what will happen (procedural information)
- Information about what sensations the individual will experience (sensory information)
- Information about what the individual can do to cope with the situation (coping information).
What is cognitive behavioural therapy?
A synthesis of behaviour therapy and cognitive therapy and uses both behaviour modification techniques and cognitive restructuring procedures to change maladaptive beliefs and behaviours.
What is motivational interviewing?
Motivational interviewing is both a counselling style and a set of clinical strategies and skills for communication to induce a change by clients, and to resolve resistance for a behaviour change if it occurs
What are the 4 categories that communication problems can fall into?
- Communications that were too late to be effective
- Failure to communicate with all relevant individuals on the team
- Content that was not consistently complete and accurate
- Communications whose purposes were not achieved i.e. issues were left unresolved until the point of urgency
Why is effective communication among health care professionals particularly challenging?
- Health care is complex and unpredictable
- Care providers often have their own disciplinary view of what the patient needs
- Health care facilities have historically had a hierarchical organizational structure
- Differences in education and training among professions often result in different communication styles and methods
What human factors are known to contribute to errors in health care?
- cognitive overload
- the effects of stress
- fatigue
- distractions and interruptions
- poor interpersonal communications
- imperfect information processing
- flawed decision making
What is the ‘situational briefing guide’? Explain what the acronym stands for.
. A standardized communication format, utilized as a situational briefing guide for staff and provider communication regarding changes in patient status.
- Situation: What is going on with the patient?
- Background: What is the clinical background or context?
- Assessment: What do I think the problem is?
- Recommendation: What do I think needs to be done for the patient?
Describe the guidelines for team huddles
- Set a standard time each day.
- Use a consistent location.
- Stand up, don’t sit down.
- Make attendance mandatory.
- Limit duration to 15 minutes.
- Begin and end on time.
- Attempt to have the same structure every day.
- Keep the agenda to limited items.
What are the benefits of team huddles?
- Preparing staff for the shift/day.
- Face-to-face communication.
- Immediate response to questions.
- Streamlined resolution of issues or concerns.
- Timely response to issues or concerns.
- Efficient dissemination of information.
- Improvement in teamwork and effective communication.
- Staff involvement in decision making.
