Discussing Commonalities and Differences Between the Dynamic Nature of Caregivers and

Patients

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 In a hospital setting, interactions between caregivers and patients take place every day

necessitating communication between these two parties. This interactions between patients and

caregivers are very dynamic because of the diverse nature of both the patient, caregivers,

changing health status of a patient for example, a care giver will communicating differently with

a patient when being tested and treated of a curable disease compared to when a care giver is

communicating with a patient who has been diagnosed with terminal illness such as cancer, HIV

among other life limiting illness (Li et al., 2020). Fluctuating emotional state especially among

patient is another factor that makes the communication dynamic as some situations that require

empathy and reassurance. Differences in cultural and linguistic origins as communication

between people from different cultural and linguistic origins requires a common language to

achieve a nuanced understanding. Contextual factors also make a conversation between a care

giver and a patient to be dynamic. For instance, when a caregiver is communicating with a

patient during diagnosis or a medical checkup, the structure and manner of that communication

is very contrasting to when a care giver is communicating with a patient during a bed side visit.

Moreover, the integration and adoption of technologies such as telemedicine to enhance service

delivery to patients has eliminated the personal communication that existed between care givers

and patients thus making the whole facet of care giver-patient communication a dynamic issue.

Evaluating both the aspect of patient and care givers perspectives, one evident

commonality among these two parties is achieving health and wellbeing. From the aspect of care

givers, they are taken thorough and comprehensive training and many years of study to be

competent enough to interact with a patient, diagnose, treat and facilitate the recovery of patients

from their diagnosed illness and enable them achieve good health. From the aspects of patients,

patients are looking for solutions to the diverse health needs they are facing so as to be able to
relieve the symptoms they are experiencing to achieve better health conditions and live a healthy

lifestyle. This shared vision of good health and well-being between the care givers and patients

forms a shared essence for effective interaction and communication. Health professional undergo

various tedious science-based curricula where they are expected comprehend the multifaceted

aspects of biological and psychological aspect of human body functioning so as to equip them

with the competence needed to address different health issues that patients suffer from.

However, according to DuPré et al., (2010), social skills and ethics are equally important

in achieving the common goal of optimal health. In the health sector realm, need for

informational exchange between care givers and patients is another commonality shared between

these two parties in order for them to achieve their objectives. The necessity for effective

exchange of information between patient and care givers led to the introduction of trainings of

aspects such as ethics, social issues and interpersonal communication as part of the process of

care giver training. Communication training has been introduced and underpinned by bodies

such as the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to enhance the

interpersonal and social issues that occur during the offering of treatment services. According to

this body, communication has been described as a significant tool to both the care giver and

patient in achieving their shared goal of optimal health. Care giver are offered communication

training to be able to interact effectively with patients from diverse backgrounds and be able to

share information with them seamless so as to facilitate service delivery. Various recent

researches have argued that both care giver and patient satisfaction is largely based on the ability

of the doctor to create a friendly environment which facilitates effective exchange if information,

feeling of involvement from patients making the whole process satisfactory to both parties.
 One key difference between patient and care giver perspective is expertise and power

dynamics imbalance that is existent between the two parties. As DuPré et al., (2010) describes,

the process of caregiver preparation until a care giver is qualified and licensed to practice in the

professional field incudes steps such as, almost six years of graduate level coursework,

internship years to gain experience in the realm and in other cases postgraduate fellowships.

During this process of learning, caregivers are exposed to various scientific educational

programs and an addition of ethical, social and communication training so as to equip them with

interaction, empathy and general social skills. Apart from the education care givers go through,

caregivers often gain a lot of experience in their day to day interaction with patients which

allows them to learn new and better ways of interacting patients with diverse backgrounds. On

the other hand, patients are random people with various backgrounds, skills and capabilities who

seldomly visit hospitals and interact with care givers. This creates a power imbalance between

care givers are well equipped in all facets involved during patient care giver interactions which

might make patients feel like they do not have any control especially during diagnosis and

treatment. This feeling of helplessness and not in control sometimes makes patient be hesitant in

asking questions, challenging decisions or suggestions made by care givers or even be afraid to

air their concerns. Such an environment if not mitigated by caregiver by creating a friendly

patient doctor interaction environment results to crippling of the process of achieving good

health and wellbeing.

To conclude, as evaluated in this paper, both caregivers and patient share a common goal

good health and well-being. In their interaction, another common need between them is the need

to exchange information to facilitate the treatment process. However, their always a exists a

feeling of power imbalance especially by patients as they interact with caregivers when receiving
treatment. This feeling of power imbalance can be remedied by professional caregivers through

creation of a friendly environment in the process of offering treatment to patients.

DuPré, A., & Overton, B. C. (2010). Communicating about health: Current issues and

perspectives.

Li, J., Luo, X., Cao, Q., Lin, Y., Xu, Y., & Li, Q. (2020). Communication needs of cancer

patients and/or caregivers: a critical literature review. Journal of Oncology, 2020(1),

7432849.