In response to the growing emphasis on clinicians' capacity to practise effective communication, Communicating Quality and Safety in Health Care provides real-time communication scenarios and interprofessional case studies. The book engages healthcare trainees from across medicine, nursing and allied health services in a comprehensive and probing discussion of the communication demands that confront today's healthcare teams. This book explains the role of communication in mental health, emergency medicine, intensive care and a wide range of other health service and community care contexts. It emphasises the ways in which patients and clinicians communicate, and how clinicians communicate with one another. The case studies explain why and how communication is critical to good care and healing. Each chapter analyses real-life practice situations, encourages the learner to ask probing questions about these situations and sets out the principal components and strategies of good communication.

This 2006 volume provides a comprehensive discussion of communication between doctors and patients in primary care consultations. It brings together a team of leading contributors from the fields of linguistics, sociology and medicine to describe each phase of the primary care consultation, identifying the distinctive tasks, goals and activities that make up each phase of primary care as social interaction. Using conversation analysis techniques, the authors analyze the sequential unfolding of a visit, and describe the dilemmas and conflicts faced by physicians and patients as they work through each of these activities. The result is a view of the medical encounter that takes the perspective of both physicians and patients in a way that is both rigorous and humane. Clear and comprehensive, this book will be essential reading for students and researchers in sociolinguistics, communication studies, sociology, and medicine.

For patients and their loved ones, no care decisions are more profound than those made near the end of life. Unfortunately, the experience of dying in the United States is often characterized by fragmented care, inadequate treatment of distressing symptoms, frequent transitions among care settings, and enormous care responsibilities for families. According to this report, the current health care system of rendering more intensive services than are necessary and desired by patients, and the lack of coordination among programs increases risks to patients and creates avoidable burdens on them and their families. Dying in America is a study of the current state of health care for persons of all ages who are nearing the end of life. Death is not a strictly medical event. Ideally, health care for those nearing the end of life harmonizes with social, psychological, and spiritual support. All people with advanced illnesses who may be approaching the end of life are entitled to access to high-quality, compassionate, evidence-based care, consistent with their wishes. Dying in America evaluates strategies to integrate care into a person- and family-centered, team-based framework, and makes recommendations to create a system that coordinates care and supports and respects the choices of patients and their families. The findings and recommendations of this report will address the needs of patients and their families and assist policy makers, clinicians and their educational and credentialing bodies, leaders of health care delivery and financing organizations, researchers, public and private funders, religious and community leaders, advocates of better care, journalists, and the public to provide the best care possible for people nearing the end of life.

This groundbreaking text draws upon examples from everyday health care situations to demonstrate that the behaviour differences we all experience in others actually fit within a readily understandable framework (the MBI).

Presented in a unique and easy-to-use dictionary format, this practical guide will help students and practitioners understand and apply the principles of effective communication.

This book provides insights into the complexities of multicultural relations in health care and demystifies the many cultural influences on health and health care to achieve its ultimate goal - to help people get the most they can out of health care and facilitate the promotion of public health.

Communication is an essential skill for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals when delivering care to patients and their families. With its unique and practical approach, this new textbook will support students throughout the three years of their degree programme and on into practice, focussing on how to develop person-centredness and compassionate and collaborative care. Key features include: * students′ experiences and stories from service users and patients to help readers relate theory to practice * reflective exercises to help students think critically about their communication skills * learning objectives and chapter summaries for revision * interactive activities directly linked to the Values Exchange Community website