FAR 153 Communication skills

BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

What is Effective Communication?

Effectiveness
Communicator WHO Preparation

Message SAYS WHAT Content & Clarity

Medium IN WHAT WAY The way in which the message

is delivered

Receiver TO WHOM Receptiveness or ability of the

person receiving the message

FEEDBACK – WITH WHAT EFFECT

 Messages do not reach the receiver due to ‘distortion’.

 Causes of distortion or the barriers to understanding/ listening:
o Environmental barriers
o Personal barriers
o Patient barriers
o Administrative and financial barriers
o Time barriers

1. Environmental / Physical Barriers

 Any aspect of the physical setting in which communication takes place.
 Can interfere with communication effectiveness, e.g.
o Height of the prescription counter
o Crowded, noisy prescription areas
o Interference from clerks/ technician

2. Personal barriers
 Low self-confidence
 Shyness

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 Dysfunctional internal monologue

 Lack of objectivity
 Cultural differences
 Discomfort in sensitive situations
 Conflicting values to pharmaceutical care practices

3. Patient barriers
 Perception towards pharmacists
 Emotional problems
o Anger
o Embarrassment
o Sadness
 Functional problems
o Sensory abnormalities – blindness, deafness
o Alternative health beliefs
o Language differences
o Comprehension difficulties

4. Administrative and financial barriers

 Patient counseling services is not a high priority
 Staff constraint
 Dispensing system – type a label, count medications

5. Time barriers
 Choosing an appropriate time to talk
 The timing of the interaction is critical

Other Barriers:
 Semantic problems
o Involves poor choice or use of words
o Use the KISS principle of communication – ‘keep it short and simple’

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 Mixed messages
o Occur when a person’s words communicate one thing while body
language communicates another
o Body language adds important insights in face-to-face meetings
 Cultural differences
o Ethonocentrism
 The tendency to believe that one’s culture and its values are
superiors to those of others
 Often linked to an unwillingness to understand alternative points of
view.
o Other cross-cultural communication challenges
 Language differences
 Use of gestures
 Absence of feedback
o As compared to one-way communication, two-way communication is
more accurate, more effective, more costly and more time consuming

Outcomes of Effective Communication

 Improved diagnostic accuracy
 Greater involvement of the patient in decision making
 Increased likelihood of adherence to therapeutic regimens
 Increased patient and clinician satisfaction

Ways to overcome barriers in communication

 Preparation
 Recognize own mood and motivation
 Conceptualization of the message
 Being an effective sender
 Being an effective questioner

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Ways to increase communication effectiveness

 Empathy
‘the sensitive ability and willingness to understand the client’s thoughts, feelings,
and struggles from the client’s point of view.. It means entering the private
conceptual world of the other.’ (Rogers, 1980)

‘I suspect that each of us has discovered that this kind of understanding

[empathy] is extremely rare. We neither receive it nor offer it with any great
frequency. Instead, we offer another type of understanding which is very different,
such as ‘I understand what is wrong with you’ or ‘I understand what makes you
act that way.’ These are the types of understanding which we usually offer and
receive—an evaluative understanding from the outside. But when someone
understands how it feels and seems to me, without wanting to analyze me or judge
me, then I can blossom and grow in that climate. (Rogers, 1967)
 Active listening
 Correct timing
 Feedback
 Non-verbal communication
 Planning
 External communication