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Effective communication in healthcare – 2

Home » Effective communication in healthcare – 2
Effective communication in healthcare – 2The Teach-back Team2022-11-24T07:24:21+00:00

–  PART 1  –

This part of the module goes through the basics of teach-back.

Sections 2 to 6 give the background and evidence for the importance of good communication, and the role of teach-back in improving client experiences, outcomes and safety.

The importance of good communication in healthcare

The healthcare system places an enormous burden on people to understand and use health information services effectively.

Some examples of what people need to understand or do:

  • Understand what a health service does and how it is relevant to them
  • Navigate websites or complex paperwork
  • Make their needs known to reception staff, clinicians and other healthcare workers
  • Find out where to get reliable, good quality health information
  • Understand instructions and lifestyle recommendations well enough to put them into practice

The challenge of effective communication in healthcare

Research tells us that effective communication in healthcare remains a challenge:

  • Up to 80% of healthcare information is forgotten immediately.
  • 50% of information recalled is incorrect.
  • 78% of patients discharged from an Emergency Department did not understand the information they were given. Nearly all of these did not realise that they had not understood.
Reference

Kessels, R. 2003. Patients’ memory for medical information. JRSM. 96(5), 219-222.
Engel, K. 2009. Patient comprehension of emergency department care and instructions: are patients aware of when they do not understand? Annals of Emergency Medicine. 53(4), 454-461.e415.
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. Health literacy: Taking action to improve safety and quality. Sydney: ACSQHC, 2014.

Start this section by listening to this audio.
Click the play button below and then check your understanding in the section that appears underneath.

What can you remember, what did you understand?

Tick which of the following were in the instructions
The first and third options are correct. This shows the difficulty some people can have when hearing new information or complex, unfamiliar jargon that is out of context. Many people remember the first thing they hear – was this the case for you with this activity?
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- a simple yet effective educational
tool used to check understanding

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