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15 thoughts on “Please post your blog response to the readings on Interpersonal Communication here!”
Because I am not a public health student and instead I am taking this course as an elective to supplement my education in becoming a Doctor of Audiology, I suspect that what I absorb from the readings and how I interpret and relate to them will most likely be different than the majority of the class. However, while I was reading these first three readings, I attempted to not only understand the material, but to also bridge the gap between what was being instructed regarding public health and my own future work as a clinician.
The readings identified key introductory concepts, such as what health communication is and which strategies/principles guide health communication. Across the readings, it seems that the health communication is not only the process of communicating health information, but also engaging in communication which creates a positive, empathetic relationship between patient and provider.
Several aspects of the readings particularly resonated with me when considering my future work as a clinician. The second reading included several factors that may be inhibitory for effective communication. These factors include time, use of medical jargon, and language and cultural barriers. All three of these factors are of concern to me in my future work, especially since audiology is a profession that works with those who have hearing loss and subsequent communication difficulties.
The third reading made mention of the uncertainty that illness can cause. Thus, effective health communication is integral in remediating that uncertainty. This is especially relevant to my future work, as people with hearing loss are often very uncertain about their futures. Some people are in denial, and don’t want to admit that their hearing loss exists. Others may feel uncertain about using assistive devices such as hearing aids. My hope is that I can utilize effective health communication based on what I have read, using research, a culture-centered focus, empathy, and seeking help from other health professionals as needed, in order to effectively communicate to my future patients and help them navigate the uncertainty of their hearing loss in a compassionate and appropriate way.
Colleen’s insightful comment reflects her proactive approach to learning and integrating course material into her field of study, audiology. Despite not being a public health student, she acknowledges the value of understanding and interpreting the readings to enhance her future practice as a Doctor of Audiology. Her intention to bridge the gap between public health concepts and clinical work demonstrates a commendable effort to broaden her knowledge and perspective. Colleen’s willingness to engage with the material in a meaningful way sets a positive example for interdisciplinary learning and application.
The readings this week really helped me form a connection between my field (audiology) and public health because many topics throughout the readings were ideas that I have discussed in my audiology courses. In the first reading, the definition of communication provided by Pearson and Nelson really stuck out to me. There was an example provided that suggested that truly understanding and sharing meanings is the difference between joking around with a coworker versus joking around with a close friend. This stuck out to me because I related it back to my own experience in the clinic. When I am working with a patient for the first time, I tend to get nervous and try to rely on humor to feel less tense during an appointment. However, if a patient does not understand that I am joking around, my message can be completely misunderstood and might come across as unprofessional. This relates back to the bigger picture of health communication because the audience truly has to understand the message in order for the audience to become informed and motivated.
Another idea that I found throughout all three readings was the idea that health communication is the most successful when multiple professionals (public health and other health care professionals) are working together. This concept makes a lot of sense because the more ideas that are shared, the more creative and strategic plans can be. This is also a concept that has been strongly enforced by all of the professionals in my field. It would not be beneficial to my patients if I did not communicate with any other professionals as an audiologist. Although it may be possible to get the job done without communicating in some cases, the patient always receives better care when we consider all other professionals who interact with the patient and how we as audiologists can also interact with those professionals. I thought this was an interesting connection because this is a concept that is essential for so many fields, including health communication.
I also connected audiology to the second reading, specifically the part that listed reasons why people interact to satisfy specific needs. Some of these reasons included being part of a social group, appreciating others and being entertained. All of these are reasons why someone might want to go to an audiologist because they are things someone would miss out on if they had a hearing loss. Similarly, in the third reading, there was a list of ways health communication can positively impact someone’s health. Some of the things listed were building social support networks and supporting shared decisions between patients and providers. Again, these are things that someone with hearing loss may benefit from if they seek treatment because they are things the audiologist could work with the patient on. These connections to audiology help me also realize the importance of effective communication and help me get a better overall understanding of health communication as someone who is coming from a different field.
These readings gave a wonderful broad overview and background as to what health communication is defined as, its key elements and areas, how it can be utilized in different settings, and its benefits. Having never put much thought into it before I never realized all of the different things that health communication can do until I saw them all listed in Table 1.3 in the first reading. I really thought that this table highlighted the true importance of health communication- especially when it is effective. Another aspect of the first reading that I really appreciated was that it stated how health communication messaged must be easily understood. This was something I thought about a lot during my internship this summer. I am from the South Coast region of Massachusetts where there are low literacy levels across the area as well as a large immigrant population with English-language barriers. While I was creating community health surveys and press releases, I really had to take a step back and think about how to simplify my word choice so that it would be content that someone with low literacy levels could understand. This is definitely something I want to gain more practice in as I don’t really know what types of words or language constitute what reading level.
While reading the second reading I was surprised to read that door-to-door communication strategies are very effective. Personally, I never open the door to people I don’t know because of safety but also because I have a mistrust for people who go door-to-door. I know the reading was speaking of this in the context of WHO and UNICEF immunizations, so this could just be because of my American perspective and experiences.
“When we think with stories rather than thinking about stories–we imaginatively attend to the lived experiences of others. In doing so we can examine and better understand our own lives, as well as give voice to and offer empathy for the suffering of others.†I think this quote from the third reading is so important. You gain so much more when you engross yourself with a story, by listening and connecting with how they much feel/have felt. Empathy can be such a powerful experience; it can be eye-opening for many people and help shed light on an issue or perspective that they weren’t aware of. It can change minds through humanization; I find this to be especially true when individuals with substance use disorder or individuals who have been/currently are incarcerated share their stories as they are so often demonized in society. You can really learn so much about society and the world by just truly listening to people’s stories.
As public health professionals, communication is a critical component of successfully being able to make positive health changes. Many of the classes we take touch on communication in one way or another, but it was interesting to see how the importance of health communication has evolved as a field. In the first chapter we read by Renata Schiavo, she discusses how health communication is strategic. I found the examples in the chapter helpful. In particular, the example with insecticide treated nets because it highlights the importance of understanding not only the needs of your audience, but their current beliefs, values, and knowledge on a subject. This exemplifies why it is important to include your ‘target audience’ in the process of health communication. Over the summer, my internship was heavily focused in health communication over social media and using knowledge of my target audience to be successful in this social media campaign. I was working at an LGBT center, so it was important to tailor my messages to be inclusive of the LBGT community, so they would be more receptive of the information that was being put out.
In chapter four, Schiavo discusses signs versus symbols, and how they are important aspects of communication. Non-formal forms of communication, such as facial expressions or body language, are just as important as what you are verbally saying. Schiavo mentions that our background and our culture impact how we understand and interpret these signs and symbols. Reading Table 4.1 made me think of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, which is a tool we frequently used in my international scholar classes. They compare many of the same dimensions, and it was a way for us to become familiar with the culture and values of the country we were planning to study abroad in. Having this base knowledge was hopefully going to make communication smoother, as we would have an understanding of why people were communicating in a certain way. Health communication is similar in that it is important to have knowledge on the culture you are working with; but rather than consult with just research, you should be talking to community leaders and community members. They know their community and their community’s needs better than anyone else.
Sharing stories draws people in, which is a strategy all of the readings highlighted. In each reading, they managed to give an example of how the concepts being discussed could present in real life. Even if it was only a short story, having these in the reading highlight how stories are an important educational tool. The third reading by Jill Yamasaki utilized stories the most, with the story of Elizabeth present throughout the reading. Sharing stories can make us feel vulnerable, but it allows people to connect and relate to you. In HPP 602 (Community Development), the entire class was based around creating a story of self, us, and now. Some people find it easy to talk about themselves, but some struggle with it. Either way, sharing something personal is never easy, which is why stories can have such a great impact and start a discussion.
In this week’s readings on interpersonal communication, we were given the broad overview of what health communication entails and how it helps the health of targeted communities. Health communication is an approach to reach diverse audiences and to share health information. The goal of health communication is to influence, engage, and support individuals and communities to encourage behavior modification and social change to improve health outcomes. A main takeaway I took from the first reading is that health communication has the ability to be flexible with approaches and frameworks because it acknowledges that situations and audiences are different and need different things to be successful. This is important because there is not a one size fits all approach or solution to health issues that affect specific populations. In Chapter 1, page 10, the author’s example of the anthrax scare gave me a better understanding of how messages should be audience specific.
Chapter 4 interested me because I believe that there is a lack of interpersonal communication in the medical/health field and that contributes to the health disparities many underserved communities face. A key point this chapter makes is that interpersonal communication is heavily influenced by individual thoughts/behaviors, society, culture, age, gender and environment. I work as an intern for a community health center, in the diabetes program, where the patients are predominantly people of color. Many of the patients are Khmer speaking like me and they express to me that they have not been able to manage their diabetes due to language barriers between them and their provider, transportation and cultural beliefs. To better assist communities like these, interpersonal communication needs to be improved so that patients are receiving adequate care and overall end up living a better quality of life.
A concept I enjoyed in the last reading was “thinking with stories†and not thinking about stories. Individuals who are often silenced, overlooked and made into these “stories†should have the ability to narrate their own stories and present in a way that they feel best fits their purpose.
I was first introduced to health communication in the class of Public Health and Technology. According to the reading, the most basic definition of health communication is improving health outcomes through the sharing of health-related information. The CDC’s definition is “the study and use of communication strategies to inform and influence individual and community decisions that enhance life.†Based on what I learned in Public Health and Technology, health communication is advancing rapidly and evolving. Some of the most distinct examples I can think of is ehealth, being able to see a doctor or clinician using smartphones or computers without actually leaving home and other popular rising health communication strategies, are health apps that deliver health advice and care instantly. Health communication is a broad topic and is a “multidisciplinary approach that reaches different audiences and shares health-related information with the goal of influencing, engaging, and supporting individuals, communities, health professionals, special groups, policymakers, and the public to champion, introduce, adopt, or sustain a behavior, practice, or policy that will ultimately improve health outcomes.†Personally, health communication does support my life and many others in a positive way but as it continues to evolve, it is important to understand that there are disparities still especially due to lack of access or lack of knowledge.
Continuing with the growth of health communication, interpersonal communication is just as important and relevant. “Interpersonal behavior and communication are highly influenced by cultural, social, age, and gender-related aspects, as well as literacy levels and individual factors and attitudes.†This is especially important for patient care when there may be one on one interaction with a nurse, doctor, counselor, and health administrator. A health professional’s willingness to properly communicate to the patient can be crucial to their health especially if there is a language barrier. When I worked at Boston Children’s Hospital as a Program Coordinator I saw how children of fluent English Speakers received better care because their parents are able to advocate for them and understand better what the provider is saying as opposed to a child of an immigrant parent whose first language isn’t English, the child becomes the direct point of contact, transmission of information, and most likely unable to advocate for themselves. By witnessing this occur, I kept in consideration the difficulty and frustration reflecting on my own patient care growing up, therefore I would always go the extra mile to ensure instructions were understood or call a translator if need be. However, patient care shouldn’t depend on the willingness of the health worker putting in the extra effort. There should always be equal care and more attention to those who need it.
As a student in a graduate level public health class who (frankly) has never taken a course in public health, I understandably had my concerns about my ability to follow the topics assigned in this course. Fortunately, upon reviewing these first readings, I found myself making plenty of connections between health communication and the health field that I wish to enter. Specifically, I was excited to be reminded of the reasons why I decided to pursue the area of study that I did.
In the Chapter Four reading on interpersonal communication, the author described the importance of communication as a core clinical competency. In short, the significance of effective patient-provider communication with emphasis on respecting the patient’s culture in order to make them feel comfortable in a health care setting was highlighted. This particular reading heavily resonated with me because the author was describing the type of clinician that I aspire to be.
I was driven toward becoming a health care professional in the field of audiology as a result of the culturally Deaf individuals I have met sharing their experiences they have had with speech and hearing specialists throughout their lives. Sadly, many of these experiences have been negative as a consequence of the professionals they have seen not being culturally competent of their strong Deaf culture. It was not uncommon (and still is not) for audiologists, speech therapists, and physicians to neglect the values of culturally Deaf clients in order to encourage a rehabilitation plan that they consider to be best, despite it discounting the client’s culture. These kinds of anecdotes are what motivates me to providing my future clients with the cultural compassion that they deserve.
This type of cultural competence was specifically highlighted as being very important in the field of nursing in the United States, where nurses are explicitly trained in this. It is my belief that every health profession could benefit from this kind of training in order to improve the patient-provider relationship. Feeling heard and understood as a patient is empowering, and this type of behavior is what helps establish effective relationships that result in extraordinary outcomes on both sides.
As an aspiring health educator, it is crucial that I develop excellent health communication skills. These readings provided me with a thought-provoking introduction to the topic of health communication. Chapter one of the Schiaro text explores the many definitions of health communication, and the key characteristics of the field. Although I was already familiar with many of the characteristics, one stood out to me in particular. This was “multidisciplinary.” In order to make an effective communication strategy, it is important to look at the topic through various lenses- from psychological, to sociological, to anthropological, to marketing. This was a good reminder for me that even though I may be knowledgable about health conditions, I will not always be the most knowledgable about the different theories and methods that can be applied to health communication. It is therefore necessary to build partnerships with individuals across disciplines to create the most effective strategies possible.
Chapter four of the Schiaro text reminded me of many interpersonal interactions I have had, both as a patient and as an educator. One of these experiences occurred when I was hospitalized for an intestinal infection while living in Thailand. Although my experience at the hospital was positive overall, the language and cultural barrier caused many difficulties. For example, even though the ambulance operator that I spoke with knew English, I was unaware that there were two apartment complexes with the same name in my city. Initially, the ambulance went to the wrong apartment complex, adding an additional 30 minutes of wait time when I badly needed treatment. While at the hospital, the practitioners taking care of me spoke mostly in Thai, which I found quite isolating and scary. I was very lucky to be in a hospital where most of the employees could speak and understand some English; however, the experience opened my eyes to how frightening medicine can be to those experiencing communication barriers.
The reading by Jill Yamasaki was my personal favorite. Narratives are such an important aspect of health communication. This is because health communication is not just about dictating information, but about listening and absorbing it as well. Our personal health histories cannot be accurately represented by a series of yes or no answers. As the article discusses, our health is impacted by a variety of factors including our culture, politics, and personal identity. IT is crucial that people’s stories are listened to, and that they are believed. This reminded me of research I have read on the differences in the way men and women are treated for pain in the United States. Previous research has shown that health-care providers are more likely to “discount women’s self-reports of pain at least until there is objective evidence for the pain’s cause” (Hoffman & Tarzian, 2001). This can lead to medical emergencies being discovered and treated too late. Female patients, just like all others, deserve to have their narratives truly listened to and believed.
Reading through these chapters I was struck by the highlighted importance of a multidisciplinary, multi-level approach to both the study and the implementation of health communication. “Communication is a relationship business†and there are a myriad of relationships to contemplate in the health communication equation. What kind of relationship do health care providers have with researchers in health communication? As a nurse who works in a busy emergency department I know the importance of timely and correct communication but also realize that the actual time spent in my professional training did little to prepare me to be the high-level communicator my work requires.
Though there are many levels to health communication the focus of these readings started at the personal level of communication rather than social, community or societal level. Door to door promotion is not uncommon in our culture and neither is the fact that we trust health providers more who can sell an image of confidence and knowledge to us. These examples demonstrate the dual definition of personal selling described in chapter 4.
Elizabeth’s story shows us the power of stories as it gets at the heart of personal challenges associated with health care, AA, and dealing with dual diagnosis. We absorb information through stories very differently. Showing the stories of those who suffer from substance use disorder does so much to humanize and relate a persons story to our own personal experience. The communication strategy of stories worked very well to convey the writers points in a memorable way.
The readings for this week’s class focused on the definition of health communication. It discusses the importance of it, and what it intends to do. The chapter one reading discusses the audience, and how it is significant to draw them in. It is important that the content is designed, tested, and implemented in a way that involves members of the community. Your audience should be invested in the content that you are distributing, and they should also be represented.
In addition to audience inclusion, the content should also be research-based. Much like health education, health education needs to come from a place of understanding. Those who are responsible for distributing this content should have knowledge of the community in which they are serving. This topic is covered in the chapter 4 reading. Health communicators should have a strategic plan of action. The way content is presented can significantly affect the outcome.
In the final reading, “Communicating the Complexities of Health and Illness”, it uses a personal anecdote to illustrate why intention is an important element when it comes to health communication. Reading Elizabeth’s story about battling addiction is a perfect example of why it is absolutely necessary to come from a place of understanding. Factoring this into health communication can help decrease stigma and increase awareness about a particular topic.
The readings emphasized that to develop a strong health communication strategy, you should first decide on the basic information that you want to convey, but then ask people from the community what they already know about that topic and what they wish they knew. Essentially, it’s important to make sure that you are giving people information that they both need and want in the first place. Giving them that information in a way that they can easily understand and apply to their own lives will increase the chance that the people are empowered to make changes in their own habits or influence changes to the habits of their family or community to improve health outcomes.
The readings emphasized that as public health professionals we need to support our health recommendations with evidence and offer clear ways to change behavior to avoid the negative health outcome. However, the way that message is communicated needs to be culturally sensitive and ideally should be developed in collaboration with the community members themselves. A communication strategy that is developed without input from members of the intended audience runs the risk of either not being understood, making the people feel undervalued/ignored, or being ignored all together as not useful.
As someone mentioned in another post, the readings have a clear multidisciplinary theme. I’ve found them to be directly applicable to thinking about communicating findings from epidemiological studies. The authors also emphasize the importance of thinking beyond the bounds of your own field. As I processed the readings for this week, I found myself constantly thinking about how to apply what I am learning about communication to education about tick-borne diseases in this area. I am interested in learning more about qualitative methods such as digital storytelling or focus groups as a potential way to guide some of my thesis research and pilot educational programming in the local community. I’m also wondering if something like “personal selling” could work sustainably as a way to get important information about preventing tick-borne diseases to people identified to be at the highest risk.
If you were to ask me for a definition of health communication before doing theses readings, I probably would have given something along the lines of, “it is a way to educated people on different health topics†which isn’t necessarily wrong but after doing these readings I realize that it can be so much more. The first reading for this week primarily focused on what health communication really is. I like that they made it a point to say health communication has to be a two-way exchange. If health communication consisted of only the health communicator giving information but not allowing the target audience to voice their thoughts and feelings, the information trying to be communicated will not be absorbed in the same way. The audience participation also allows for the goals and strategies to evolve based on the populations’ needs. The parts of the reading where this concept was discussed made me think about the peer health education group I was a part of in undergrad. The programs we were facilitating were on topics we knew were important to college students. It would not have been a beneficial organization if our advisor just went and gave programs on what she felt was needed, instead of us being able to base the information we were giving on the needs of the students. This reading also discussed how much health communication has grown over the years. It is no longer just the job of news stations or press releases to give the information. People are being specifically trained in college to become health communicators. It is also important that health communicators do not work alone, they collaborate with many different people like doctors, community leaders, and other public health professionals.
The second reading focused more specifically on interpersonal communication. The reading brought up the importance of communication for clinical competency, which was also discussed in the TED talk we watched. If a doctor can have a successful conversation with a patient that makes them feel comfortable and makes them understand their situation then patient satisfaction is improved along with other things like compliance with health recommendations. In order to have this successful communication the dynamics of interpersonal communication must be understood. There are many environmental and societal influences on communication. You must be aware of cultural differences, language barriers, and the role that power/social status has on the situation. It was encouraging to see that the current trends of patient-provider communication show that patients have become more involved with their care and power balance weighs less heavily on the doctor. It is one of the most frustrating things to feel like your doctor is not listening to you when you go to see them. I remember a time I went to the see my doctor when I was sick and as I’m explaining my symptoms, she interrupts me and just starts telling me a treatment plan. I took it upon myself to continue telling her what was wrong and then she began to second guess the treatment she had begun to tell me about. The whole experience was frustrating and after reading about interpersonal communication, I am assuming that my doctor was not adequately trained in that area, but it seems like the people that are becoming doctors now are working to improve that.
The third reading had some of the same introductory information as the first reading but this one focused on people’s stories and what factors influence them. I really enjoyed how this reading intertwined the story of Elizabeth throughout, it made all the concepts come together. People telling their stories allows them to have a voice and gets others to understand them a little bit better. The reading brought up how our culture can affect the stories that are heard. There is a lot of stigma around people with mental health illnesses and addiction. This stigmatization created more divides in our country and these issues are often not viewed as public health problems. Communication about these issues is necessary to fully understand the needs of the people living with these diseases.
Schiavo’s readings very much remind me of the first few classes of health communication that I took in the communication’s department here at Umass Amherst during my junior year of undergrad. However the focus was different. Schiavo points out that there are expected certain outcomes when you look at health communication from a public health point if view. Within communication tense, this is also expected but often not discussed. Strategies and media outlets are discussed more often. I think an important point that Schiavo makes is that health communication can not replace local infrastructure. This may seem like common sense but on a day to day basis you may hear people making ignorant comments that impoverished areas deal with certain diseases and illnesses because of their lack of knowledge; however that is not the case it is that many of these areas are lacking resources. Schiavo’s reading also served as a reminder to myself of all that health communication encompasses. I never really think of health communication being done on a one on one basis but instead as sending a general message to a specific group however interpersonal communication can be within both individuals and groups. I think the average person thinks of professional medical communications when they think about one on one health communication. I was a bit troubled by the patient provider relationship section because I believe that the US healthcare system does not truly allow this interpersonal communication to be improved. Yes, there are general things medical providers can do in order to listen better or appear to be listening better most times their time with patients is limited not allowing genuine relationships to be built; this is especially true with doctors.
Yamasaki’s reading was an interesting read. Just the use of the word “complex” is very meaningful because when it comes to understanding someone’s medical history and cultural background I do not think that anyone truly understands because it is not their lived experience play by play but also we as human beings are imperfect and although we may have science to back up our medicine, treatments, and procedures the health field is not all knowing. This is very apparent with Liz’s story. So many things have happened within her lifetime and she did not reveal all of it while her substance abuse was getting worse but it was essential to her health and why her disorder developed at a a fast pace.
Because I am not a public health student and instead I am taking this course as an elective to supplement my education in becoming a Doctor of Audiology, I suspect that what I absorb from the readings and how I interpret and relate to them will most likely be different than the majority of the class. However, while I was reading these first three readings, I attempted to not only understand the material, but to also bridge the gap between what was being instructed regarding public health and my own future work as a clinician.
The readings identified key introductory concepts, such as what health communication is and which strategies/principles guide health communication. Across the readings, it seems that the health communication is not only the process of communicating health information, but also engaging in communication which creates a positive, empathetic relationship between patient and provider.
Several aspects of the readings particularly resonated with me when considering my future work as a clinician. The second reading included several factors that may be inhibitory for effective communication. These factors include time, use of medical jargon, and language and cultural barriers. All three of these factors are of concern to me in my future work, especially since audiology is a profession that works with those who have hearing loss and subsequent communication difficulties.
The third reading made mention of the uncertainty that illness can cause. Thus, effective health communication is integral in remediating that uncertainty. This is especially relevant to my future work, as people with hearing loss are often very uncertain about their futures. Some people are in denial, and don’t want to admit that their hearing loss exists. Others may feel uncertain about using assistive devices such as hearing aids. My hope is that I can utilize effective health communication based on what I have read, using research, a culture-centered focus, empathy, and seeking help from other health professionals as needed, in order to effectively communicate to my future patients and help them navigate the uncertainty of their hearing loss in a compassionate and appropriate way.
Colleen’s insightful comment reflects her proactive approach to learning and integrating course material into her field of study, audiology. Despite not being a public health student, she acknowledges the value of understanding and interpreting the readings to enhance her future practice as a Doctor of Audiology. Her intention to bridge the gap between public health concepts and clinical work demonstrates a commendable effort to broaden her knowledge and perspective. Colleen’s willingness to engage with the material in a meaningful way sets a positive example for interdisciplinary learning and application.
Thank you for the information . Sewa mobil banyuwangi
The readings this week really helped me form a connection between my field (audiology) and public health because many topics throughout the readings were ideas that I have discussed in my audiology courses. In the first reading, the definition of communication provided by Pearson and Nelson really stuck out to me. There was an example provided that suggested that truly understanding and sharing meanings is the difference between joking around with a coworker versus joking around with a close friend. This stuck out to me because I related it back to my own experience in the clinic. When I am working with a patient for the first time, I tend to get nervous and try to rely on humor to feel less tense during an appointment. However, if a patient does not understand that I am joking around, my message can be completely misunderstood and might come across as unprofessional. This relates back to the bigger picture of health communication because the audience truly has to understand the message in order for the audience to become informed and motivated.
Another idea that I found throughout all three readings was the idea that health communication is the most successful when multiple professionals (public health and other health care professionals) are working together. This concept makes a lot of sense because the more ideas that are shared, the more creative and strategic plans can be. This is also a concept that has been strongly enforced by all of the professionals in my field. It would not be beneficial to my patients if I did not communicate with any other professionals as an audiologist. Although it may be possible to get the job done without communicating in some cases, the patient always receives better care when we consider all other professionals who interact with the patient and how we as audiologists can also interact with those professionals. I thought this was an interesting connection because this is a concept that is essential for so many fields, including health communication.
I also connected audiology to the second reading, specifically the part that listed reasons why people interact to satisfy specific needs. Some of these reasons included being part of a social group, appreciating others and being entertained. All of these are reasons why someone might want to go to an audiologist because they are things someone would miss out on if they had a hearing loss. Similarly, in the third reading, there was a list of ways health communication can positively impact someone’s health. Some of the things listed were building social support networks and supporting shared decisions between patients and providers. Again, these are things that someone with hearing loss may benefit from if they seek treatment because they are things the audiologist could work with the patient on. These connections to audiology help me also realize the importance of effective communication and help me get a better overall understanding of health communication as someone who is coming from a different field.
These readings gave a wonderful broad overview and background as to what health communication is defined as, its key elements and areas, how it can be utilized in different settings, and its benefits. Having never put much thought into it before I never realized all of the different things that health communication can do until I saw them all listed in Table 1.3 in the first reading. I really thought that this table highlighted the true importance of health communication- especially when it is effective. Another aspect of the first reading that I really appreciated was that it stated how health communication messaged must be easily understood. This was something I thought about a lot during my internship this summer. I am from the South Coast region of Massachusetts where there are low literacy levels across the area as well as a large immigrant population with English-language barriers. While I was creating community health surveys and press releases, I really had to take a step back and think about how to simplify my word choice so that it would be content that someone with low literacy levels could understand. This is definitely something I want to gain more practice in as I don’t really know what types of words or language constitute what reading level.
While reading the second reading I was surprised to read that door-to-door communication strategies are very effective. Personally, I never open the door to people I don’t know because of safety but also because I have a mistrust for people who go door-to-door. I know the reading was speaking of this in the context of WHO and UNICEF immunizations, so this could just be because of my American perspective and experiences.
“When we think with stories rather than thinking about stories–we imaginatively attend to the lived experiences of others. In doing so we can examine and better understand our own lives, as well as give voice to and offer empathy for the suffering of others.†I think this quote from the third reading is so important. You gain so much more when you engross yourself with a story, by listening and connecting with how they much feel/have felt. Empathy can be such a powerful experience; it can be eye-opening for many people and help shed light on an issue or perspective that they weren’t aware of. It can change minds through humanization; I find this to be especially true when individuals with substance use disorder or individuals who have been/currently are incarcerated share their stories as they are so often demonized in society. You can really learn so much about society and the world by just truly listening to people’s stories.
As public health professionals, communication is a critical component of successfully being able to make positive health changes. Many of the classes we take touch on communication in one way or another, but it was interesting to see how the importance of health communication has evolved as a field. In the first chapter we read by Renata Schiavo, she discusses how health communication is strategic. I found the examples in the chapter helpful. In particular, the example with insecticide treated nets because it highlights the importance of understanding not only the needs of your audience, but their current beliefs, values, and knowledge on a subject. This exemplifies why it is important to include your ‘target audience’ in the process of health communication. Over the summer, my internship was heavily focused in health communication over social media and using knowledge of my target audience to be successful in this social media campaign. I was working at an LGBT center, so it was important to tailor my messages to be inclusive of the LBGT community, so they would be more receptive of the information that was being put out.
In chapter four, Schiavo discusses signs versus symbols, and how they are important aspects of communication. Non-formal forms of communication, such as facial expressions or body language, are just as important as what you are verbally saying. Schiavo mentions that our background and our culture impact how we understand and interpret these signs and symbols. Reading Table 4.1 made me think of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, which is a tool we frequently used in my international scholar classes. They compare many of the same dimensions, and it was a way for us to become familiar with the culture and values of the country we were planning to study abroad in. Having this base knowledge was hopefully going to make communication smoother, as we would have an understanding of why people were communicating in a certain way. Health communication is similar in that it is important to have knowledge on the culture you are working with; but rather than consult with just research, you should be talking to community leaders and community members. They know their community and their community’s needs better than anyone else.
Sharing stories draws people in, which is a strategy all of the readings highlighted. In each reading, they managed to give an example of how the concepts being discussed could present in real life. Even if it was only a short story, having these in the reading highlight how stories are an important educational tool. The third reading by Jill Yamasaki utilized stories the most, with the story of Elizabeth present throughout the reading. Sharing stories can make us feel vulnerable, but it allows people to connect and relate to you. In HPP 602 (Community Development), the entire class was based around creating a story of self, us, and now. Some people find it easy to talk about themselves, but some struggle with it. Either way, sharing something personal is never easy, which is why stories can have such a great impact and start a discussion.
In this week’s readings on interpersonal communication, we were given the broad overview of what health communication entails and how it helps the health of targeted communities. Health communication is an approach to reach diverse audiences and to share health information. The goal of health communication is to influence, engage, and support individuals and communities to encourage behavior modification and social change to improve health outcomes. A main takeaway I took from the first reading is that health communication has the ability to be flexible with approaches and frameworks because it acknowledges that situations and audiences are different and need different things to be successful. This is important because there is not a one size fits all approach or solution to health issues that affect specific populations. In Chapter 1, page 10, the author’s example of the anthrax scare gave me a better understanding of how messages should be audience specific.
Chapter 4 interested me because I believe that there is a lack of interpersonal communication in the medical/health field and that contributes to the health disparities many underserved communities face. A key point this chapter makes is that interpersonal communication is heavily influenced by individual thoughts/behaviors, society, culture, age, gender and environment. I work as an intern for a community health center, in the diabetes program, where the patients are predominantly people of color. Many of the patients are Khmer speaking like me and they express to me that they have not been able to manage their diabetes due to language barriers between them and their provider, transportation and cultural beliefs. To better assist communities like these, interpersonal communication needs to be improved so that patients are receiving adequate care and overall end up living a better quality of life.
A concept I enjoyed in the last reading was “thinking with stories†and not thinking about stories. Individuals who are often silenced, overlooked and made into these “stories†should have the ability to narrate their own stories and present in a way that they feel best fits their purpose.
I was first introduced to health communication in the class of Public Health and Technology. According to the reading, the most basic definition of health communication is improving health outcomes through the sharing of health-related information. The CDC’s definition is “the study and use of communication strategies to inform and influence individual and community decisions that enhance life.†Based on what I learned in Public Health and Technology, health communication is advancing rapidly and evolving. Some of the most distinct examples I can think of is ehealth, being able to see a doctor or clinician using smartphones or computers without actually leaving home and other popular rising health communication strategies, are health apps that deliver health advice and care instantly. Health communication is a broad topic and is a “multidisciplinary approach that reaches different audiences and shares health-related information with the goal of influencing, engaging, and supporting individuals, communities, health professionals, special groups, policymakers, and the public to champion, introduce, adopt, or sustain a behavior, practice, or policy that will ultimately improve health outcomes.†Personally, health communication does support my life and many others in a positive way but as it continues to evolve, it is important to understand that there are disparities still especially due to lack of access or lack of knowledge.
Continuing with the growth of health communication, interpersonal communication is just as important and relevant. “Interpersonal behavior and communication are highly influenced by cultural, social, age, and gender-related aspects, as well as literacy levels and individual factors and attitudes.†This is especially important for patient care when there may be one on one interaction with a nurse, doctor, counselor, and health administrator. A health professional’s willingness to properly communicate to the patient can be crucial to their health especially if there is a language barrier. When I worked at Boston Children’s Hospital as a Program Coordinator I saw how children of fluent English Speakers received better care because their parents are able to advocate for them and understand better what the provider is saying as opposed to a child of an immigrant parent whose first language isn’t English, the child becomes the direct point of contact, transmission of information, and most likely unable to advocate for themselves. By witnessing this occur, I kept in consideration the difficulty and frustration reflecting on my own patient care growing up, therefore I would always go the extra mile to ensure instructions were understood or call a translator if need be. However, patient care shouldn’t depend on the willingness of the health worker putting in the extra effort. There should always be equal care and more attention to those who need it.
As a student in a graduate level public health class who (frankly) has never taken a course in public health, I understandably had my concerns about my ability to follow the topics assigned in this course. Fortunately, upon reviewing these first readings, I found myself making plenty of connections between health communication and the health field that I wish to enter. Specifically, I was excited to be reminded of the reasons why I decided to pursue the area of study that I did.
In the Chapter Four reading on interpersonal communication, the author described the importance of communication as a core clinical competency. In short, the significance of effective patient-provider communication with emphasis on respecting the patient’s culture in order to make them feel comfortable in a health care setting was highlighted. This particular reading heavily resonated with me because the author was describing the type of clinician that I aspire to be.
I was driven toward becoming a health care professional in the field of audiology as a result of the culturally Deaf individuals I have met sharing their experiences they have had with speech and hearing specialists throughout their lives. Sadly, many of these experiences have been negative as a consequence of the professionals they have seen not being culturally competent of their strong Deaf culture. It was not uncommon (and still is not) for audiologists, speech therapists, and physicians to neglect the values of culturally Deaf clients in order to encourage a rehabilitation plan that they consider to be best, despite it discounting the client’s culture. These kinds of anecdotes are what motivates me to providing my future clients with the cultural compassion that they deserve.
This type of cultural competence was specifically highlighted as being very important in the field of nursing in the United States, where nurses are explicitly trained in this. It is my belief that every health profession could benefit from this kind of training in order to improve the patient-provider relationship. Feeling heard and understood as a patient is empowering, and this type of behavior is what helps establish effective relationships that result in extraordinary outcomes on both sides.
As an aspiring health educator, it is crucial that I develop excellent health communication skills. These readings provided me with a thought-provoking introduction to the topic of health communication. Chapter one of the Schiaro text explores the many definitions of health communication, and the key characteristics of the field. Although I was already familiar with many of the characteristics, one stood out to me in particular. This was “multidisciplinary.” In order to make an effective communication strategy, it is important to look at the topic through various lenses- from psychological, to sociological, to anthropological, to marketing. This was a good reminder for me that even though I may be knowledgable about health conditions, I will not always be the most knowledgable about the different theories and methods that can be applied to health communication. It is therefore necessary to build partnerships with individuals across disciplines to create the most effective strategies possible.
Chapter four of the Schiaro text reminded me of many interpersonal interactions I have had, both as a patient and as an educator. One of these experiences occurred when I was hospitalized for an intestinal infection while living in Thailand. Although my experience at the hospital was positive overall, the language and cultural barrier caused many difficulties. For example, even though the ambulance operator that I spoke with knew English, I was unaware that there were two apartment complexes with the same name in my city. Initially, the ambulance went to the wrong apartment complex, adding an additional 30 minutes of wait time when I badly needed treatment. While at the hospital, the practitioners taking care of me spoke mostly in Thai, which I found quite isolating and scary. I was very lucky to be in a hospital where most of the employees could speak and understand some English; however, the experience opened my eyes to how frightening medicine can be to those experiencing communication barriers.
The reading by Jill Yamasaki was my personal favorite. Narratives are such an important aspect of health communication. This is because health communication is not just about dictating information, but about listening and absorbing it as well. Our personal health histories cannot be accurately represented by a series of yes or no answers. As the article discusses, our health is impacted by a variety of factors including our culture, politics, and personal identity. IT is crucial that people’s stories are listened to, and that they are believed. This reminded me of research I have read on the differences in the way men and women are treated for pain in the United States. Previous research has shown that health-care providers are more likely to “discount women’s self-reports of pain at least until there is objective evidence for the pain’s cause” (Hoffman & Tarzian, 2001). This can lead to medical emergencies being discovered and treated too late. Female patients, just like all others, deserve to have their narratives truly listened to and believed.
Hoffmann, Diane E. and Tarzian, Anita J., The Girl Who Cried Pain: A Bias Against Women in the Treatment of Pain (2001). Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Vol. 29, pp. 13-27, 2001. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=383803 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.383803
Reading through these chapters I was struck by the highlighted importance of a multidisciplinary, multi-level approach to both the study and the implementation of health communication. “Communication is a relationship business†and there are a myriad of relationships to contemplate in the health communication equation. What kind of relationship do health care providers have with researchers in health communication? As a nurse who works in a busy emergency department I know the importance of timely and correct communication but also realize that the actual time spent in my professional training did little to prepare me to be the high-level communicator my work requires.
Though there are many levels to health communication the focus of these readings started at the personal level of communication rather than social, community or societal level. Door to door promotion is not uncommon in our culture and neither is the fact that we trust health providers more who can sell an image of confidence and knowledge to us. These examples demonstrate the dual definition of personal selling described in chapter 4.
Elizabeth’s story shows us the power of stories as it gets at the heart of personal challenges associated with health care, AA, and dealing with dual diagnosis. We absorb information through stories very differently. Showing the stories of those who suffer from substance use disorder does so much to humanize and relate a persons story to our own personal experience. The communication strategy of stories worked very well to convey the writers points in a memorable way.
The readings for this week’s class focused on the definition of health communication. It discusses the importance of it, and what it intends to do. The chapter one reading discusses the audience, and how it is significant to draw them in. It is important that the content is designed, tested, and implemented in a way that involves members of the community. Your audience should be invested in the content that you are distributing, and they should also be represented.
In addition to audience inclusion, the content should also be research-based. Much like health education, health education needs to come from a place of understanding. Those who are responsible for distributing this content should have knowledge of the community in which they are serving. This topic is covered in the chapter 4 reading. Health communicators should have a strategic plan of action. The way content is presented can significantly affect the outcome.
In the final reading, “Communicating the Complexities of Health and Illness”, it uses a personal anecdote to illustrate why intention is an important element when it comes to health communication. Reading Elizabeth’s story about battling addiction is a perfect example of why it is absolutely necessary to come from a place of understanding. Factoring this into health communication can help decrease stigma and increase awareness about a particular topic.
The readings emphasized that to develop a strong health communication strategy, you should first decide on the basic information that you want to convey, but then ask people from the community what they already know about that topic and what they wish they knew. Essentially, it’s important to make sure that you are giving people information that they both need and want in the first place. Giving them that information in a way that they can easily understand and apply to their own lives will increase the chance that the people are empowered to make changes in their own habits or influence changes to the habits of their family or community to improve health outcomes.
The readings emphasized that as public health professionals we need to support our health recommendations with evidence and offer clear ways to change behavior to avoid the negative health outcome. However, the way that message is communicated needs to be culturally sensitive and ideally should be developed in collaboration with the community members themselves. A communication strategy that is developed without input from members of the intended audience runs the risk of either not being understood, making the people feel undervalued/ignored, or being ignored all together as not useful.
As someone mentioned in another post, the readings have a clear multidisciplinary theme. I’ve found them to be directly applicable to thinking about communicating findings from epidemiological studies. The authors also emphasize the importance of thinking beyond the bounds of your own field. As I processed the readings for this week, I found myself constantly thinking about how to apply what I am learning about communication to education about tick-borne diseases in this area. I am interested in learning more about qualitative methods such as digital storytelling or focus groups as a potential way to guide some of my thesis research and pilot educational programming in the local community. I’m also wondering if something like “personal selling” could work sustainably as a way to get important information about preventing tick-borne diseases to people identified to be at the highest risk.
If you were to ask me for a definition of health communication before doing theses readings, I probably would have given something along the lines of, “it is a way to educated people on different health topics†which isn’t necessarily wrong but after doing these readings I realize that it can be so much more. The first reading for this week primarily focused on what health communication really is. I like that they made it a point to say health communication has to be a two-way exchange. If health communication consisted of only the health communicator giving information but not allowing the target audience to voice their thoughts and feelings, the information trying to be communicated will not be absorbed in the same way. The audience participation also allows for the goals and strategies to evolve based on the populations’ needs. The parts of the reading where this concept was discussed made me think about the peer health education group I was a part of in undergrad. The programs we were facilitating were on topics we knew were important to college students. It would not have been a beneficial organization if our advisor just went and gave programs on what she felt was needed, instead of us being able to base the information we were giving on the needs of the students. This reading also discussed how much health communication has grown over the years. It is no longer just the job of news stations or press releases to give the information. People are being specifically trained in college to become health communicators. It is also important that health communicators do not work alone, they collaborate with many different people like doctors, community leaders, and other public health professionals.
The second reading focused more specifically on interpersonal communication. The reading brought up the importance of communication for clinical competency, which was also discussed in the TED talk we watched. If a doctor can have a successful conversation with a patient that makes them feel comfortable and makes them understand their situation then patient satisfaction is improved along with other things like compliance with health recommendations. In order to have this successful communication the dynamics of interpersonal communication must be understood. There are many environmental and societal influences on communication. You must be aware of cultural differences, language barriers, and the role that power/social status has on the situation. It was encouraging to see that the current trends of patient-provider communication show that patients have become more involved with their care and power balance weighs less heavily on the doctor. It is one of the most frustrating things to feel like your doctor is not listening to you when you go to see them. I remember a time I went to the see my doctor when I was sick and as I’m explaining my symptoms, she interrupts me and just starts telling me a treatment plan. I took it upon myself to continue telling her what was wrong and then she began to second guess the treatment she had begun to tell me about. The whole experience was frustrating and after reading about interpersonal communication, I am assuming that my doctor was not adequately trained in that area, but it seems like the people that are becoming doctors now are working to improve that.
The third reading had some of the same introductory information as the first reading but this one focused on people’s stories and what factors influence them. I really enjoyed how this reading intertwined the story of Elizabeth throughout, it made all the concepts come together. People telling their stories allows them to have a voice and gets others to understand them a little bit better. The reading brought up how our culture can affect the stories that are heard. There is a lot of stigma around people with mental health illnesses and addiction. This stigmatization created more divides in our country and these issues are often not viewed as public health problems. Communication about these issues is necessary to fully understand the needs of the people living with these diseases.
Schiavo’s readings very much remind me of the first few classes of health communication that I took in the communication’s department here at Umass Amherst during my junior year of undergrad. However the focus was different. Schiavo points out that there are expected certain outcomes when you look at health communication from a public health point if view. Within communication tense, this is also expected but often not discussed. Strategies and media outlets are discussed more often. I think an important point that Schiavo makes is that health communication can not replace local infrastructure. This may seem like common sense but on a day to day basis you may hear people making ignorant comments that impoverished areas deal with certain diseases and illnesses because of their lack of knowledge; however that is not the case it is that many of these areas are lacking resources. Schiavo’s reading also served as a reminder to myself of all that health communication encompasses. I never really think of health communication being done on a one on one basis but instead as sending a general message to a specific group however interpersonal communication can be within both individuals and groups. I think the average person thinks of professional medical communications when they think about one on one health communication. I was a bit troubled by the patient provider relationship section because I believe that the US healthcare system does not truly allow this interpersonal communication to be improved. Yes, there are general things medical providers can do in order to listen better or appear to be listening better most times their time with patients is limited not allowing genuine relationships to be built; this is especially true with doctors.
Yamasaki’s reading was an interesting read. Just the use of the word “complex” is very meaningful because when it comes to understanding someone’s medical history and cultural background I do not think that anyone truly understands because it is not their lived experience play by play but also we as human beings are imperfect and although we may have science to back up our medicine, treatments, and procedures the health field is not all knowing. This is very apparent with Liz’s story. So many things have happened within her lifetime and she did not reveal all of it while her substance abuse was getting worse but it was essential to her health and why her disorder developed at a a fast pace.