CAUSES FOR INEFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN …

1 J of IMAB. 2017 Jul-Sep;23(3) articleCAUSES FOR INEFFECTIVE COMMUNICATIONBETWEEN MEDICAL SPECIALISTSS tayko I. Spiridonov,Department of Health Policy and Management, Faculty of Public Health,Medical University - Sofia, of IMAB - Annual Proceeding (Scientific Papers). 2017 Jul-Sep;23(3):Journal of IMABISSN: 1312-773 : In the resent years the healthcare systemhas moved to inter-professional, cross-disciplinary, multi-person approach where the communications are very im-portant for ensuring patient safety. COMMUNICATION inhealth organisations needs to be studied and analyseddeeply and comprehensively because the future of an or-ganisation often depends on good COMMUNICATION . Thepurpose of this study is to investigate and analyse the rea-sons for INEFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN medical spe-cialists in the teams they work and Methods: A questionnaire methodis used. Through a survey over a period of 12 months(from 01.)

2 12. 2014 to 01. 12. 2015) at the Escullap Hos-pital in Pazardzhik, DCC 18 - Sofia, St. Mina Hospital inPlovdiv, MHAT Plovdiv, DCC 1 in Haskovo, UMHATin Stara Zagora, DCC 3 in Varna and MHAT Parvomay,was studied and analyzed the opinion of medical special-ists on the effectiveness of COMMUNICATION within theteam they work in. The survey includes 477 medical and conclusions: According to of therespondents, the COMMUNICATION in the team they workin is insufficiently effective. Most of the respondents( ) find their colleagues responsible for the ineffec-tive COMMUNICATION , followed by those who seek the causefor poor COMMUNICATION in the management of the healthcare facility ( ). The leading cause of poor commu-nication in the team according to the study participantsis the inequality BETWEEN the characters of the colleagues( ). According to the majority of respondents( ), improvements in facilities and wage increases( ) would be essential to improve communicationwithin the team they work in.

3 Recommendations havebeen formulated to improve COMMUNICATION among medi-cal : COMMUNICATION , medical specialists, ef-ficiency,INTRODUCTIONC ommunication in health organisations needs tobe studied and analysed deeply and comprehensively. Thefuture of an organisation often depends on good commu-nication. It is necessary to study the many aspects of busi-ness COMMUNICATION : its objectives, strategies, the obsta-cles in COMMUNICATION , the ways to communicate more ef-fectively, the basic principles of business contacts, thetypes of COMMUNICATION and, last but not least, the formsof business COMMUNICATION (verbal, nonverbal , Epistolary,public speaking and telephone COMMUNICATION ) [1, 2].Zillich mentioned that recognition of these drivers mighthelp medical specialist developing collaborative workingrelationships [3]. The knowledge of all these aspects ofthe COMMUNICATION process in the business environmentenables anyone who wants to be a professional to reviewtheir behaviour and way of expression during communi-cation and to achieve the necessary COMMUNICATION the resent years the healthcare system has movedto inter-professional, cross-disciplinary, multi-person ap-proach where the communications are very important forensuring patient safety.

4 The COMMUNICATION inefficiencyis a prerequisite for worsening teamwork and extent thepossibilities of error in the health services delivering [4].With the health and safety of patients at stake, learningto communicate effectively and efficiently with all mem-bers of the patient-care team is critical [5].The purpose of this study is to investigate and ana-lyse the reasons for INEFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION betweenmedical specialists in the teams they work achieve this goal, we set out the following maintasks:1. To explore the opinion of medical specialists onthe effectiveness of COMMUNICATION within the team theywork To identify the most common CAUSES for ineffi-cient COMMUNICATION within the team according to To clarify the specific CAUSES for poor communi-cation within a To investigate the preferred measures to improveteam COMMUNICATION according to survey To formulate recommendations for improvingcommunication BETWEEN medical AND METHODSA questionnaire method is used to objectify the ob-served results.

5 The survey was conducted over a periodof 12 months (from to ) at theEscullap Hospital in Pazardzhik, DCC 18 - Sofia, St. MinaHospital in Plovdiv, MHAT Plovdiv, DCC 1 in Haskovo,UMHAT in Stara Zagora, DCC 3 in Varna and MHAT - of IMAB. 2017 Jul-Sep;23(3) survey includes 477 medical specialists, , nurses, midwives and paramedics working at thehealth facilities analyses were made with a statisticalsuite of application programs - SPSS For table andgraphic processing and presentation were used theMICROSOFT OFFICE AND DISCUSSIONOut of the survey participants, the largest share isin the age range BETWEEN forty-fifty years - a total of thirty-seven people or of all respondents. The smallestgroup in our study is the group of health workers overthe age of sixty - (Figure 1).Fig. 1. Age structure of respondentsThe frequency of the respondents distribution inour survey according to their job description shows thatthe largest share is that of nurses and midwives - the share of doctors is almost as much - 45,1%.

6 Thesurvey also includes managers ( ) and parsers ( ),but with relatively less surveyed the respondents opinion on the effec-tiveness of COMMUNICATION in the team they work in. Ac-cording to , COMMUNICATION is sufficiently effective(Figure 2).Fig. 2. Frequency of the respondents distributionon the effectiveness of COMMUNICATION in the team theywork inThe active and effective COMMUNICATION betweenall members is very important for providing efficienthealth services [5]. Stephen and McPhee sited that com-munication BETWEEN the medical specialists may be im-proved by suppling more clinical information and directcontact [6].In order to find out the reasons for the ineffectivecommunication in the team according to the survey par-ticipants, we asked the next question in the survey. (Fig-ure 3)Fig. 3. Most common reasons for inefficient COMMUNICATION in the team according to respondentsJ of IMAB. 2017 Jul-Sep;23(3) of the respondents ( ) find theircollegues responsible for the INEFFECTIVE second largest is the group of those who seek thecause for poor COMMUNICATION in the management of thehealth care facility (27,6%) they work also tried to investigate the specific CAUSES forpoor COMMUNICATION in a team.

7 There is a predominantview that the leading cause of poor COMMUNICATION in theteam is the inequality BETWEEN the characters of the col-leagues. This is the opinion of 41,9% of the second most important cause, according to medicalspecialists, is the poor pay, which in their opinion createsa prerequisite for strained relations in the team (Figure 4).Fig. 4. Most common CAUSES for poor communica-tion in the team of respondentsInvestigating the opinion of the participants in thesurvey, we found that, according to the majority of them( ), the improvement of the facilities will be essen-tial for improving the COMMUNICATION within the teamthey work in. The second (27,3%) are those medical spe-cialists who believe that wage increase would also leadto better COMMUNICATION with their colleagues. A lot ofthe respondents ( ) attach importance to the role ofteam building activities to COMMUNICATION improving (Fig-ure 5).

8 Fig. 5. Preferred measures for improving team com-munication according to survey on the analysis of respondents opinion onthe CAUSES for INEFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN medi-cal specialists in the teams they work in, the followingconclusions can be drawn:1. According to of the respondents, the com-munication in the team they work in is insufficiently Most respondents (39,8%) find their colleguesresponsible for the INEFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION , followedby those who seek the cause for poor COMMUNICATION inthe management of the health care facility (27,6%).3. The main cause for poor COMMUNICATION in theteam according to the participants in the study is the in-equality BETWEEN the characters of the colleagues ( ).4. According to the majority of respondents( ), improvements in equipment and wage increases( ) will be essential to improving communicationwithin the team they work analysis of the conclusions and summariesmade on the basis of the research conducted and the needto solve the problems examined allow us to make recom-mendations to the health managers who would like to useably COMMUNICATION as a management tool and as amethod of improving the relationships within the team:1.

9 In-depth study of the motivation of health work-ers with the purpose of improving the level and effective-ness of COMMUNICATION in work Provision of periodic training on the impact ofcommunication skills on improving the relationships be-tween professionals working in a medical Development of a test program to clarify the riskof deterioration of the relationships within the team,which will determine individually the opportunities forimprovement of the participants communicative abilities,leading to a number of favourable of IMAB. 2017 Jul-Sep;23(3)1. Vodenicharov T. Professionalhealth management has no Meridians. 2014; 2:3-7. [inBulgarian]2. Dimitrov I. Influence of commu-nicative skills on the basic character-istics of the working environment inhealth organizations, PhD Thesis,2016, pp. 61-64. [in Bulgarian]3. Zillich AJ, McDonough RP,Please cite this article as: Spiridonov SI. CAUSES for INEFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN Medical Specialists.

10 J of Jul-Sep;23(3):1623-1626. DOI: : 06/05/2017; Published online: 03/07/2017 Address for correspondence:Assoc. Prof. Stayko Ivanov Spiridonov, MDDepartment of Health Policy and Management, Faculty of Public Health,Medical University - , Bialo more str., fl. 5; 1527 Sofia, : +359898 642 646E-mail: BL, Doucette WR. Influentialcharacteristics of physician/pharma-cist collaborative relationships. AnnPharmacother. 2004 May;38(5):764-70. [PubMed] [CrossRef]4. Palanisamy R, Verville J. Fac-tors Enabling COMMUNICATION -BasedCollaboration in InterprofessionalHealthcare Practice: A Case J e-Collaboration (IJeC). 2015 April; 11(2):8-27. [CrossRef]5. Woods JA, Jackson DJ, AlstonGL. Interprofessional Topics. 2011 Aug;155(8) McPhee SJ, Lo B, Saika GY,Meltzer R. How good is communica-tion BETWEEN primary care physiciansand subspecialty consultants? ArchIntern Med. 1984 Jun;144(6):1265-8.[PubMed] [CrossRef]