Communication Breakdown in Healthcare

Research and regulatory bodies have long confirmed that poor communication in healthcare is harmful at best and deadly at worst.

In the past decade, the healthcare community has turned to safety tools and checklists to reduce unintentional slips and errors. And yet, a new study called The Silent Treatment reveals that despite the safety interventions taken in the last decade, silence still kills. Safety tools do not compensate for crucial conversations failures in the hospital.

This video is a dramatization of a true story from the study.

Despite interventions made in the last decade to reduce avoidable medical errors caused by poor communication a new study of 6500 nurses found that...silence still kills.

One nurse shares her true story.

"I was on a surgical team when I noticed a doctor making a critical error. He was preparing to operate on the wrong side of the patient. Now, we have a surgical safety checklist that we follow and in this case, we noticed that the permit didn't match what the doctor was doing. So, we tried to stop the surgeon but he said the permit was wrong even though it had been verified by the wow sleeping patient. We couldn't even get support from the supervisor or the anesthesiologist. So, in the end, the surgery went forward. As nurses, we felt awful because there was no support from management to stop this doctor. I mean what's the point in having a checklist when it's not even followed? We felt absolutely powerless to be an advocate for this patient."

[kanwaliqbal]

hey I'm working in Willing Ways as a psychologist. these vital smarts videos share a real wisdom. this a a true example of silent kills. ppl still think that in many situations if we remain silent, it helps but infact it KILLS! not only in hospitals but in organization or infront of any authoritative figure. so the best way is to speak assertively about the truths and always add ur true opinions to the shared pools. it can really help to get better results in every area of life.

[sinnatravels]

I was a Certified Surgical Tech for 39 years, 10 of those years I spent doing travel ALL again ALL of my abuse from Dr.'s, RN's, management for my entire 39 year career. I have always been a patient advocate, and also an employee safety advocate. Management tell you to be a pt advocate but they truly do not want you to be. in the OR it is ALL about time and money, not about the patient. You report about things you see in error, and most never get addressed, never changes and you get labeled the trouble maker for speaking up. there are coverups just like in the Police field, the thin blue line. they bury it, hide it, and the whistle blower gets fired for some stupid reason, with no recourse to go to to help uncover the abuse and coverups. NOONE WILL LISTEN AND HELP, after 39 years I have finally given up nursing.

[hectortorres]

Pretty bizarre, I hope this never happens to anyone!

[ThomasStroble-MIInjuryLawyers]

Is there nothing more these nurses could do in this case to stop the surgery?

[simoneblue]

what do i do if a doctor has made a mistake on me