Communication is a vital aspect in all organizations, including health care institutes. It enhances the maximization of the utilization of company resources as well as saves time when conducted in the right manner. A health care organization involves a variety of people who have diverse age groups, tribes, ethnicity, religious beliefs, and cultural practices, among other varied factors that can be considered to different persons or groups of individuals. Therefore, the leadership as well as the management need to be extremely keen on the process of interaction that has been employed in their organization. Thus, the need to establish a communication plan or strategy for their health care center. A communication plan is a documented process of concentration on delivering the correct messages to the right people and at the right time. Therefore, this study will focus on the development of a healthy and constructive interaction procedure in the health care sector.
Health Problem Definition
The main and first challenge that any health care facility is most likely to suffer from is the problem of communication. It is because the sector is always occupied with different people who interconnect using different methods. These individuals also use diverse channels of interaction. Therefore, it is easier for one to communicate or pass a message to the wrong party at the inappropriate time. Thus, this means that the dispatch may not reach the intended audience, and those whom it got to might not even understand its meaning. Due to this, it is always right to identify and categorize the key audience or the targeted group that the health sector wants to pass the message to (Johl & Grigsby, 2017). The recipients can be grouped according to either their age group, level of education, residence, or even according to their ethnicity, among many other distinguishable factors. Moreover, this kind of collection will help the health care department identify the main and the best channels their target audience uses or prefers to receive any health information through. Therefore, it will make it easy for them to be assured that the audience will likely receive the message directly.
Factors Contributing to the Health Problem
There are several factors that seem to contribute to the communication problem. One of the factors includes the unreliability of some of the channels that the healthcare system implements. Currently, there have been several diverse interaction avenues that have been applied due to technology advancement. These developments have led to people moving from the ancient means of conveying information, while some still prefer the old ways. Even so, the availability of many platforms or setups to pass a message has been challenging due to the increase in insecurities of the transmitted data on social media networks (Azimi, 2019). It is quite evident that the internet is the best and most recommendable and reliable means through which information can be passed. However, considering that some individuals are still computer-related illiterate means that the health sector cannot entirely rely on this method alone. They must therefore consider implementing and updating a communication policy that encourages use of a combination of different types of avenues to ensure that the message sent will reach the audience.
Behavior Change or Communication Model
There are several models implemented to explain various behaviors that can guide the development of a communication strategy. One of them includes the People and Places Model which was developed by Abroms, Maibach, and Marosits to help them in communication and marketing processes depending on their impacts on society (Donovan et al., 2017). The idea behind the ecological philosophy was raised from the question about ‘what about the people and the places the communication needs to take place’ (Donovan et al., 2017). The methodology elaborates on how individuals and the places the information is supposed to reach influence the channel of communication that one needs to use or implement. It elaborates on the advocacy for policies of the two occurrences or events to be more effective at bringing communication process’ change. Thus, this helps to understand the communication problem more easily and hence be able to find a solution faster.
Evidence based intervention (EBP)
A communication plan also includes the selection of involvement by different parties. Mostly, in this scenario, it is recommendable to adopt an evidence-based intervention for society. Evidently, this would help the community more than it could when it is developed from scratch. Furthermore, starting to establish such an initiative from the start is deemed to be tiresome and hectic. It also assumed to consume a substantial amount of resources such as energy, time, and space. EBP (Evidence-Based-Practice) is the usage of medical study to define the finest procedures of patient care. Through research, expert views, as well as other types of information, caregivers can recognize means of providing ideal care. Furthermore, through utilization of EBP originates improved persistent outcomes, which could reduce the interest in healthcare resources (Kim, 2018). Consequently, medical-care organizations could reduce expenses; for example, outdated procedures might have involved provisions, equipment, or things that are not, important for particular practice or procedures.
The following are categorized undertakings regarding the EBP interaction (ask, accumulate, evaluate, act, and evaluate). To manage medical amenities suppliers to explain the medical issue of revenue (ask), gather and evaluate proof, fuse finest procedure propositions in present procedure (act), and evaluate outcomes (Davies, 2017). Defined ventures for the EBP cycle (ask, accumulate, evaluate, act, assess). In order to direct medical care dealers to explain the medical matter of revenue (ask), gather and evaluate proof, consolidate finest procedure proposals in present-day practice (act), and evaluate outcomes.
Audience Description
A communication plan cannot be completed successfully without definition of the audience. This includes consideration and categorization of the audience into three main groups which include the primary, secondary, and tertiary. For instance, when a message concerning infants’ nutrition needs to be passed, the health caregivers can consider giving the message to the children’s mothers who will be recognized as the primary audience. On the other hand, the grandmothers might be the ones who usually make most of the baby-related decisions rather than their mothers. In this case, the grandmother would be considered as the secondary audience since they seem to influence the decisions the baby’s mother makes concerning the infant’s nutrition. The tertiary audience now includes any other relevant person that can be thought to influence the decision of the mother and the grandmother. It includes people outside the primary and secondary audience which might involve the villagers, friends, among others. The three main categories of audience are different and thus will require different channels for effective communication.
Conclusion
In summary, communication is essential in every organization and especially to a health institution, since it determines the flow of health information to different people. Effective and efficient communication needs to be employed in the health sector. It is because of the need to implement an effective and efficient communication process between the audience and the health caregivers. In this case, an effective communication plan being implemented indicates a successful interaction process. It also enhances the likelihood of the message getting to the right audience at the right time and using the correct channels. A communication plan also helps the health caregivers identify the best networks to use to convey or pass their information to their addressees considering their diversities.
References
Azimi, M. (2019). Evaluation of health system development plan and basic education transformation plan based on health system assumptions with emphasis on education. Nian Journal of Health Education and Health Promotion, 7(2), 154-171.
Davies, L. (2017). Becoming literate in communications activism. Afterimage, 45(2-3), 4-8.
Donovan, E., Love, B., Mackert, M., Vangelisti, A., & Ring, D. (2017). Health communication: A future direction for instructional communication research. Communication Education, 66(4), 490-492.
Johl, K., & Grigsby, R. (2017). Engaging learners in health system quality improvement efforts. Academic Medicine, 92(5), 593-597.
Kim, Y. (2018). Analyzing the relative importance for the development plan of the public health care system. Journal of Health Informatics and Statistics, 43(4), 300-306.