Program on Translational Ethics of Applied Health and Medical Communication (TEAMc)
The TEAMc program is geared to promote effective, evidence-based communication among physicians, nurses, health care teams, patients, and patients’ families in health and medical arenas.
Goal
The goal of the work accomplished in this program is to improve communication skills, advance the understanding of communicative interactions within the medical sphere, and to help medical professionals better serve the patients in their care through advancing an understanding of issues leading to communication breakdowns. This program centers on communicative relationships salient to both the business and the practice of health care.
Program Steps
This program depends on a three step process. First, through clinical information identified from ethics consultations the program focuses on locating, discovering, and uncovering areas where there is problematic communication. Second, the program targets the problematic communication discovered and develops research to better understand the dynamics involved. Third, out of the research, the program is geared to formulate education interventions, training, and continuing educational curricula.
Program Emphases
- Medical Teams Communication:
- Communication research on and training in inter-collegial interaction and conflict negotiations.
- The role of communicating about professional issues among medical co-workers.
- Communication Issues in Ethics Consultations:
- Communicative parameters of ethics consultations.
- Family Communication Dynamics:
- Training in navigating communication patterns and family dynamics in health crises.
- Training in discerning family enactments of power and control issues during illness.
- Training in discerning family enactments of power and control issues during illness.
- Disclosure in Medicine:
- Understanding disclosure of diagnosis and prognosis.
- Dynamics of disclosing medical mistakes.
- The use of disclosure among medical professionals.