Health Care Communication Ethics

As the author stated in the textbook, health care communication ethics “seeks to protect and promote care- care is the communicative action or practices that links to the good of responsiveness to the Other." (p. 199) I feel a strong connection between communication and health care because we provide care under our communication ethics. It differs from other topics such as organizational and public discourse since the position and relationship of provider and receiver is apparent. The key here is that the family, patient and health care providers need to understand their responsiveness and follow how they are supposed to behave. No matter how serious the patient’s ill is, their moral expectation is important. I found a good example of health care issues from the textbook. It is unethical to ask “how are you?” to a patient carrying oxygen with him/her to wherever he/she goes. The phrase “how are you?” is often used in any general situations, but we need to know the patients are more likely to be sensitive and negative because of their health condition. Thinking other words instead of “how are you?” is what health care communication ethics teaches us.

Making patient feel safe is one of the major roles of health care service. What I have experienced when I went to a hospital 3 years ago was uncomfortable treatment from the health care providers. Despite I had a high fever, I could not tell my condition to the nurse in English. She told me to lie on a bed in a small room separated by curtain and took blood probably for a test. I was worried because it took for over one hour and I didn’t know what was going on and called her to tell let me go home. The hospital provided a translation service for patients concern language barrier, but it was not helpful at all. Intercultural communication ethics could be applied in the situation.