4 Communication Tips For Healthcare Professionals
Grow your career with an essential tool for success: communication. Learn some top communication tips for healthcare professionals and discover their benefits.
In intense work environments like practices in the healthcare industry, proper communication plays a critical role. It makes sure all parties involved in the business—patients, doctors, building managers, and maintenance crew—stay safe and healthy. Here are four communication tips for healthcare professionals and their benefits.
1. Open Communication
Open communication strengthens bonds with your clients, developing their loyalty to you and your services. It shows your patients you value them and respect their rights.
Inform Patients About Their HIPAA Rights
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) enforces standards that protect the rights of individuals and entities in many ways. As a key HIPAA principle, patients have certain rights to access and change—within reason—their sensitive information and records, as well as give permission to others.
One of the updates to HIPAA regulations in 2023 added and expanded patients’ rights over their personal protected health information (PHI). As a healthcare professional, being open and informing your patients about their HIPAA rights and related changes builds trust through communication.
2. Inclusivity and Accessibility
Language is a beautiful and essential tool. It comes in many variations, providing multiple ways to communicate with others. However, most people only know a limited number of languages fluently, making it hard to interact with and reach certain populations.
Offer Interpreters and Alternative Forms of Communication
Offering interpretation services and alternative forms of communication—video calls, messaging, in-person meetings—provides inclusivity, expands your accessibility, and strengthens patient relationships. It enhances communication, giving people the option to voice their concerns or reach out in a way that they feel most comfortable. It further generates clarity, reducing miscommunication or misinterpretation.
Need Help With Your Job Search?
Enroll in our online course, Find a Job Fast: The Job Search Accelerator For Career Professionals
3. Verbiage Technicality
No matter your role in the healthcare industry, this field uses non-colloquial, technical terms. However, using language that only a limited few are familiar with creates barriers.
Keep Things Simple and Explain Technical Terms
When conversing with patients and clients who aren’t familiar with medical jargon, keep things simple. Although dropping technical terms shows off your expertise, it provides little benefit to those deciphering the information you’re giving. Explain any formal terms you need to use, provide multiple examples, and double-check your patient’s need for clarification to ensure proper communication.
4. Judgment and Clarity
People fear confiding with one another due to anxieties of judgment. However, as a healthcare professional, gathering a lot of important information is crucial to providing your clients with the best possible care.
Communicate With an Open Mind and Listening Ears
Approaching conversations with your patients with an open mind and leaving opinions or dissuading facial reactions aside builds a more welcoming atmosphere that encourages clients to speak honestly. Without the fear of judgment or punishment, people are more likely to open up with ease. Make sure to also give them time to open up without interruption and actively listen to them.
Proper communication influences one’s success and productivity in many careers—especially in healthcare. These four communication tips for professionals in healthcare help you practice the best standards for interacting with your clients and enhancing your career growth.
Related:
Meet The Writer!
Hi! My name is Nadia Ibrahim-Taney and I help people design happy and fulfilling careers through authentic career coaching. My expertise includes career exploration guidance, resume writing, interview prep and LinkedIn profile optimization. My pronouns are She/ Her/ Hers and as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I focus on how diverse identities impact and influence folks holistically and professionally. Please connect with me on LinkedIn or at Nadia@beyonddiscoverycoaching.com
