ID Course Description:
The interdisciplinary study and practice of communication in healthcare and public health. Topics include provider-patient interaction, team communication, and the diffusion of health information through public health campaigns. Students practice clear, purposeful and compassionate communication across multiple channels, to reduce errors and improve healthcare delivery.
Rationale for Interdisciplinary (ID) Course Designation
The big questions we are asking in the course include:
- What are the most effective ways of promoting health and wellness?
- How should messages be adapted to different audiences?
- How can healthcare communication be improved to reduce errors?
- What are the institutional, economic, cultural, and other factors that help or inhibit communication?
These questions are best tackled by combining insights from a number of different medical and academic disciplines. This interdisciplinary course will include insights from subject matter experts in Psychology, Nursing, Dental Hygiene, Anthropology, Media Studies, Public Health, and Communication Studies.
Introducing Health Communication:
Health communication refers to human interactions that influence health and wellness outcomes. It is concerned with how healthcare providers interact with their patients, as well as health promotion campaigns in the media. This class co-creates a definition for health communication, drawing on humanistic, social-scientific and medical approaches.
Topics we cover:
- Communication across healthcare specialties and hierarchies
- Health promotion and health marketing
- How the media portrays health issues
- Interprofessional communication between providers from different disciplines
- The role of simulation exercises in becoming better communicators
- Communication impairments and disabilities
