How To Overcome Communication Barriers In Healthcare?

By Author: Healthcare Conference
Total Articles: 6
Comment this article

Communication barriers in healthcare is one of the most hardcore issues that is currently being faced in lot many nations all over the world. For example, there was a rural women from interior ends of state Tamil Nadu, she brought her two year old son for treatment in a Delhi based hospital. She was speaking with a specialist who had no knowledge about Tamil language. There was nobody around to translate and thus, a lot of precious time was lost which could have been used for starting the treatment. Previously, such cases were prevalent in
Western nations on a higher frequency. Why were these less in India? Two reasons, one, people always found solution to their healthcare conferences problems on a local level or in the closest A level city close to them that has same culture and language. But, now as the diversity is increasing and people are moving more frequently in search of jobs and other crucial things, communication barrier has emerged as a major challenge in healthcare sector. Farther, the people go higher is the problem many a times. More than India, it is a regular problem in United States and Europe which ...
... have almost same kind of diversity as we have.

What we are describing here is just the tip of the iceberg where communication is concerned with respect to health care. There are no communication barriers only when it comes to patient and doctors, there are several such problems that are being faced by nursing staffs as well. The best example is from the Kerala based nurses who have been serving patients all over India taking training from distant centers and establishing their bases there. Ask any single nurse and she will have hundred of anecdotes and stories to tell with respect to communication barriers. Even on international scale, there are so many languages that are spoked like Hindi, Chinese, Spanish, Tagalog, Korean, Mandarin, and so many others.

Language barriers are the major cause of problems for physicians to understand patient’s problems and help them in the way they want. There are major chances of misinterpretation and incorrect diagnosis. The doctor will treat only on the basis of symbols and signs the patient gives or would rely on the interpreter who may or may not begin with the right course of treatment. Interpreters like family, relatives or friends are untrained interpreters and not as reliable as professional interpreters. It is mainly because they have no knowledge of medical terms and phrases. If the person explains or misinterprets the signs or symptoms incorrectly, these may lead to wrong or misdiagnosed treatment.

Such issues may seem unimportant from a length, but need to be addressed on a prior basis. One of the best places to discuss and get some viable solutions are the global healthcare conferences or international health conference that are held on a regular basis. One such effort is being made by Symbiosis International University in association with Faculty of Health & Biomedical Sciences in May 2017 where they will be discussing a paradigm shift in the global healthcare scenario and different aspects related with at. The second session of Symhealth, it is slated to be attended by scholars, doctors, clinicians, physicians, lawyers, paralegals, and so many other professional that are intertwined with health issues in one or the other way. You can always check out the official site at http://symhealth.siu.edu.in for further details.