Abstracts by keywords: needs assessment
Patient safety is a central goal in healthcare (Rodwin et al. 2020: 1; Zech et al. 2017: 333) and is defined as the “absence of adverse events” (Schrappe 2018: 3). In addition to medical skills and knowledge, successful communication has proven to be a central part of patient safety and its safeguarding, both within the staff team and between staff and patients (Barlett et al. 2008: 1555-1562; Leonard et al. 2004: 85-90; Hickson et al. 1992: 1359-1363). Disturbed communication, for example due to the use of medical terms that patients and relatives do not understand, or language barriers such as a lack of German or other languages can lead to a loss of information and reduced patient safety (Barlett et al. 2008: 1555-1562; Leonard et al. 2004: 85-90; Hickson et al. 1992: 1359-1363). There are other reasons for suboptimal communication and various barriers that prevent the implementation of successful communication. These include, for example, insufficient information transfer, work overload, lack of mutual respect, an insufficient feeling of belonging to a team or low self-confidence (Zegers et al. 2020). Too little further training was also identified as a risk factor (Olde Bekkink et al. 2018: 262-270). Lyndon and colleagues summarized in a review that successful communication in healthcare should be respectful, clear, direct and explicit (Lyndon et al. 2011: 94). Consistently implementing successful communication requires intensive listening, good administrative support, and community engagement to overcome hindering hierarchies and professional stereotypes to ensure patient safety.