Management

Healthcare Management

Communication is of great importance for the medical practitioner since with effective communication; the patient’s problems are described more accurately and hence attended to affectively. Satisfaction with the way care is administered also results from communication thereby making the patient more cooperative and enhancing the treatment process (Howells et. al., 2006). Both the rehabilitation ward and the children’s medical center are challenging environments when it comes to communication. These areas have patients who require specialized skills and facilities for their management and care. In these two areas, differences arise in the use of communication skills due to the age and needs of the patients.

In the children’s ward, it is imperative that the children be understood even if they have not fully mastered verbal communication. On the other hand, in rehabilitation, a patient needs an understanding health practitioner who will listen to their problems and give them the proper care. The challenge in communicating to children stems from the fact that they cannot communicate their needs verbally while in the rehabilitation ward, the greatest challenge is listening to the patients needs and acting on them reasonably thereby gaining their trust. Forming an intimate relationship with rehabilitation patients is a challenge since it demands a level of involvement that is not characteristic for normal communication. Rehabilitation is supposed to be a therapeutic process in which the patient recovers from an injury or illness. The patient and his/her kin are consulted during the process of recovery and hence the need for intimate communication between the patient and the medical health practitioner. Therefore, in the rehabilitation ward, verbal communication is emphasized with every detail affecting the patient being relayed to them. With children, communication is mostly through non-verbal means although children above five years may be competent enough to be involved in making their own health choices (Cahill & Papageorgiou, 2006).

Both the approaches are appropriate only when applied in the proper quantity and in the proper situations. Verbal communication cannot be used to communicate with a child and for making decisions based sorely on their feedback. However, the limited information obtained using the method can be used to supplement information obtained by other means such as body language and symptoms. In the rehabilitation ward, however, verbal information can be treated as primary data and other information obtained through body language is used to supplement it. However, these communication methods cannot be wholly depended on either since individuals are distinctive and they have unique methods of communicating. Therefore, scientific methods of inquiry have to be employed especially with children to improve certainty about a given condition.

The management of these organizations is different as can be shown by the different approaches used in communicating to the people involved. The management of the rehabilitation center is characterized by information exchange between the patients and the health practitioners. However, in the children’s ward, there is little information exchanged between the two parties. Both the organizations have a care-demanding environment since both these types of patients are care-intensive. Therefore, personalized care is characteristic of both these groups as is the management style of the organizations. However, personalized method of dealing with issues is more intensively needed in the rehabilitation ward given the need for privacy and the uniqueness of cases found in them.

Both these management styles are effective but only in certain situations. The personalized method is applicable in cases where there is need for privacy and where cases are radically different. The second approach, which is the generalized one, is applicable to cases that have the same features and thus they can be treated using the same methodologies. Both the methods of management can be applied but with the degree of personalization for the given case in mind. The effectiveness of each management style would therefore depend on the particular manager’s ability to balance the methods.

References

Cahill, P. & Papageorgiou, A. (2006, October 17). Triadic communication in the primary care paediatric consultation: a review of the literature. British Journal of General Practice. Retrieved January 9, 2010 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2169315/

Dreachslin, J. L., Weech-Maldonadob, R. and Kathryn K.H. (2004). Racial and ethnic diversity and organizational behavior: a focused research agenda for health services management. Elsevier Ltd. Social Science & Medicine Volume 59, Issue 5, September 2004, Pages 961-971. Retrieved January 9, 2010 from http://www.sciencedirect.com/

Howells, R. J., Davies, H. A. and Silverman, J. D. (2006, 4 January). Teaching and Learning Consultation skills for Pediatric Practice

Kevin J. Walsh, Michael P. Barnes and D. Lindsay McLellan (1988). A Rehabilitation Ward In A District General Hospital: First Three Years’ Experience. BMJ: British Medical Journal, Vol. 297, No. 6658 (Nov. 12, 1988), pp. 1252-1256, BMJ Publishing Group. Retrieved January 9, 2010 from http://www.jstor.org/stable/29701528