Week 7: Individualising Patient Communication Flashcards
What are the three different personal skills are required for effective patient communication:
- Content (clinical knowledge) skills are what HCPs communicate
- Process skills are how HCPs communicate
- Perceptual skills are what the HCP observes, thinks and feels
When providing a health service to patients, in addition to taking medical history and assessing the patient health needs, HCPs undertake the following communication steps:
- Understand the patient’s background / context for the service
- Learn & respect the patient priorities / concerns
- After taking medical history & assess patient needs, then decide what you need to let them know then tailor how you deliver the information for each patient
- Refine how to motivate the individual to act on your information
What are social determinants of health?
- Are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work & age
- These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power & resources at global, national and local levels
Impact on Health Outcomes
- The ability to find, understand & apply information about health (i.e. health literacy)
- Health outcomes – such as cancer survival, oral health
- Risk factors of health such as physical inactivity & obesity, as well as the prevalence of multiple risk factors in an individual
- Life expectancy & self-assessed health status
- Access to healthcare
Impact on Smoking Rates
- There is a consistent inverse relationship between cigarette smoking & income level
- Increased risks of smoking-related harm begin before birth, with higher likelihood of pregnant women from low socioeconomic status backgrounds
Impact on Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)
Risk factors such as inactivity, high cholesterol levels & unhealthy food choices
What is the The CVD death rate statistically?
- For males in lowest socioeconomic areas was 1.52 times as high as for males in the highest socioeconomic areas
- For females, the disparity was 1.33 times as high
What happens with lower level of education?
- Fewer employment options
- Shift work
- Environmental risk
- Poor sleep patterns & weakened immune system
- Increase risk of heart disease
What happens with higher level of education?
- More employment options & higher income
- Influences physical health in a positive way
If people have been told something is not good for their health, why don’t they change their behaviours?
Why would people with the least amount of disposable money, spend the most on fast food and cigarettes?
- Level of education
- Unaware on the severity and risks involved
- Socioeconomic background
- Initially hard to break the cycle
What do Consumers Health Forum (CHF) do?
- National peak body representing the interests of Australian healthcare consumers
- CHF works to achieve safe, quality, and timely healthcare for all Australians and accessible health information & systems
What does Health Care Consumers’ Assoc. in ACT (HCCA) represent?
- HCCA works to improve quality and availability of health services, supports consumers to identify shared priorities about health, and represents these views to the ACT Government
- Principal health consumer advocacy organisation in the ACT
- Supported & developed health consumer perspectives and policy in the ACT for over 30 years
Why do we need health consumer ‘representatives’?
- To establish rules
- Provide a voice for all consumers on health issues
- Advocate for the health of all people
How can involving consumer representatives improve patient outcomes on an individual and community level?
- Improve health & wellbeing
- Quality of care
- Available healthcare resources
What is Health Literacy?
- The knowledge & skills required to understand and use information relating to health issues
- Nine million Australians (or 60 percent) of the population between the ages of 15 and 74 don’t have the basic knowledge & skills to understand and use information about their own health