Effective communication in the endoscopy team: the key to patient safety

Effective communication among healthcare professionals is crucial for successful care in the Endoscopy unit. As the field of gastroenterology continues to evolve, the collaboration and communication among doctors, nurses, and the entire endoscopy team remain vital to ensuring high-standard, safe patient care. To improve communication in the endoscopy unit, it is essential to address the various challenges associated with teamwork.

High-quality communication ensures clear, accurate, and consistent healthcare during endoscopic procedures, enhancing patient satisfaction and safety while protecting healthcare professionals. Accurate, precise, and concise communication is crucial to avoid misunderstandings and potential errors in patient care. Excessive misunderstandings create an unsafe environment, leading to poor information transfer, incorrect equipment use, misidentification of patients, and a range of other adverse outcomes linked to poor communication practices [1] [2].

Some of these challenges include time pressure, lack of trust among team members, differences in personality, communication styles, and educational backgrounds. These factors can result in: misunderstandings in procedures, missed important information, incorrect information transfer, decreased responsiveness, neglect of protocols, increased stress and anxiety, and a lack of teamwork. In order to enhance communication among healthcare professionals, it is important to start with personal development. This includes identifying specific communication skills that require improvement, learning to control one’s emotions, reflecting on interpersonal interactions, and avoiding distractions during conversations.

Effective communication is becoming increasingly critical within the endoscopy team for mitigating misinformation, enhancing coordination among healthcare professionals, and ensuring high-quality patient care. This ultimately leads in greater patient satisfaction and optimized health outcomes.

Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
27. März 2025

• References

• 1 Bello P.. Effective communication in nursing practice: A literature review. BSc Nursing Thesis. Arcada. 2017 Available at https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/84798372.pdf
• 2 Kwame A, Petrucka PM.. A literature-based study of patient-centered care and communication in nurse-patient interactions: barriers, facilitators, and the way forward. BMC Nurs 2021; 20: 158