Health communication
Effective communication is crucial for health-related outcomes and even situational analysis, which includes evaluating the audience to help guide the choice of appropriate messages and channels applied.
Additionally, during the late 18th century, British Navy surgeon James Lind began formally documenting mortality among sailors in his medical publication Treatise of the Scurvy in 1753.
When assessing how affective a health campaign is, the key determinant is the degree of audience reception, the quality and quantity of the message, the dissemination channels, and the larger communication environment.
tEACH is a specific subgroup focused on aiding teachers across the globe with tools and resources for promoting proper healthcare communication.
Practitioners are pragmatic and draw from social-scientific scholarship, theories from the humanities, and professional fields such as education, management, law and marketing (Maibach 2008).
[3] Clear communication is essential to successful public health practice at every level of the ecological model: intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, organizational, and societal.
In each instance of health communication, there must be careful deliberation concerning the appropriate channel for messages to best reach the target audience, ranging from face-to-face interactions to television, Internet, and other forms of mass media.
The social and cultural contexts in which health communication occurs are also widely diverse and can include (but are not limited to) homes, schools, doctor's offices, and workplaces, and messages must consider the variant levels of health literacy and education of their audience, as well as demographics, values, socioeconomic issues, and many other factors that may influence effective communication.
Not only does misinformation contribute to vaccine hesitancy, social discrimination and stigma, but is also affected by the ongoing global trust[23] crisis in science and official sources.
Communicators need to continually synthesize knowledge from a range of other scholarly disciplines including marketing, psychology, and behavioral sciences.
This includes a variety of steps to ensure a well-developed message is being communicated:[4] 2014 African Ebola Outbreak In 2018, four years after the first major outbreak of Ebola in Western Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and UNICEF partnered together to raise awareness about the deadly virus in a multi-national effort reaching around 800,000 people in affected areas.
Communication efforts about preventive measures and safe practices regarding the virus included home visits by nurses, campaigns in major cities and markets, and broadcasting through mass media.
This new set of restrictions included lockdowns, stricter contact-tracing mechanisms, and increased testing to Chinese citizens was aimed at attempting to stop the spread of Covid-19.
The campaign additionally focused on developing and/or strengthening local governments knowledge on the matter and establishing public safety plans when heatwaves are imminent.
These unpredictable abundant deaths led hospitals to feel misguided on how to treat such numerous amounts of people with few resources or information to go off of.
Lack of information and the highly contagious and deadly nature of the disease posed a critical health communication need.
4) Recognize concerned behavior among the public, reassure them, and give efficient explanations of new findings in a more compassionate way to avoid more panic across the country.
[35] Several health communicators and campaigns encourage this by suggesting taking action towards the surroundings of our community, involving hand sanitizers in consistently noticeable places like bathrooms, public parks, restaurants, etc.
Health communicators explained that providing the pertinent information, including definitions of contagious illness, helps the public to better understand the severity of the virus and protocols to avoid spreading it.
A study conducted by the Strategic Advisory Group of Exerts on Immunization (SAGE) worked to see if vaccine hesitancy was determined by poor communication given to the public.
Many campaigns and studies involving STD prevention were reviewed to see what the most effective exposure and communication strategies were to stop the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs).
[42] All campaigns researched that were well-managed and structured had similar results in which individuals who were more exposed to STD prevention methods and communication had long-lasting effects on their target audience.
Constant delivery of STD prevention towards the campaign’s intended research also led them to similarly provide a call-to-action to individuals to make sure they properly communicate on sex, have access to support, use condoms consistently, and, most importantly, get tested.
Social media consists of websites and applications that enable users to create and share content including communication regarding health.
In recent years the upward trend to use social media during disaster and crisis times to share public health concerns can be followed.
[49] It also shows how the healthcare team views the patient as a fellow member who can be helped to achieve a specific objective with a clear vision by exchanging information.
[52] Relationship-centered care is characterized by the contributions of teamwork and understanding made between the patients and the physicians and their respective perceptions of the value of their relationships.
One recommendation is to improve medical student training by adding lectures, workshops, and supervised encounters with patients to teach interpersonal and communication skills as a core competency.
[62] It covers research on using simple, balanced language, finding the correct focus, alternative formats (e.g. videos, visuals), and online information.
Although this panic is based on false information, many still harbor a lingering suspicion towards vaccinations and refuse them, which has caused a public health concern.
