Effective Communication Skills for Medical Secretaries in Healthcare: Addressing Barriers and Enhancing Outcomes

Abstract

Background
Healthcare secretary is one of the greatest assets to the healthcare sector, as they serve as communication link between patients, physicians and other clerks. Interpersonal skills are paramount for their practice though poorly probed in scientific literature. This paper aims to fill part of this knowledge gap through exploring communication competencies, barriers encountered and the effect of training programmes.
Objective
This work aims at determining critical aspects regarding communication; assess obstacles to communicate; appraise the consequences of managed training programs for medical secretaries.
Methods
A combination of literature review, online self-completed questionnaire with 300 medical secretaries and quantitative evaluation of pre-post intervention with 120 participants. The quantitative data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics, paired t-tests, and qualitative data while the interviews were subjected to thematic coding.
Results
Hearing and comprehending participants (94%) Seeing things from the participant’s perspective (89%) Writing and documenting participants (88%). Finally, perceived barriers were obtained which were; inadequate time (91%), staff emotional stress out (74%), and technological factors (68%). The training interventions made a big progress in boosting communication confidence (47.4%) and patient satisfaction (26.9%).
Conclusion
Probably the most significant attribute to the proficiency of medical secretaries is in their communication abilities. Blending education and training to the plan of patient treatment and dealing with barriers can improve patient and organizational performance. Further studies should encompass organised follow-ups and comparisons of results across countries and cultures.