Definition of Communication and its Basic Elements Quiz

Definition of Communication

• Communication is the exchange of ideas, opinions, emotions, information, and knowledge between sender and receiver.

Basic Elements of Communication Process

• The Referent: initiates communication between nurse and others (e.g., sights, sounds, odors, time schedule, messages, emotions, ideas).
• The Sender: the person who delivers the message.
• The Message: verbal and nonverbal information expressed by the sender.
• The Receiver: the person to whom the message is sent.
• The Channel: the means of conveying and receiving the message through visual, auditory, and tactile senses.
• The Environment: the physical and emotional atmosphere in which the interaction takes place.
• The Feedback: the message returned to the original sender by the receiver, indicating whether the meaning of the sender's message was understood.

Levels of Communication

• Intrapersonal communication: occurs within individuals (self-talks).
• Interpersonal communication: interaction between two people, often face-to-face, commonly used in nursing situations.
• Public communication: interaction with a large group of people, such as giving a lecture to a room full of students.

Types of Communication

• Upward communication: process by which lower-level company employees can directly communicate with upper management to provide feedback, complaints, or suggestions.
• Downward communication: act of relaying important information from higher levels to lower levels employees.
• Horizontal communication: workplace communication among people, departments, or teams at the same level in an organization.
• Diagonal communication: type of communication that crosses all organizational units and hierarchical levels.

Methods of Communication

• Verbal Communication: encoding of messages into words, either written or spoken.
  • Oral: dialogue, discussion, telephone call.
  • Written: memos, letters, forms, reports, papers, statistics.

Communication and Communication Technology

• Vlogs: video logs, visual versions of blogs, to increase brand awareness and engage with audiences.
• Podcasts: audio-based forms of communication, allowing creative control over content and building stakeholder relationships.
• Conferencing Technology: allows multiple people to communicate in real-time from different locations, saving time and money, and increasing efficiency and productivity.
• Email: popular form of communication technology, sending messages and files over the internet.
• Blogs: personal websites sharing content with anyone interested in the subject from anywhere in the world.
• Forums: online platforms for posting and responding to questions.

E-commerce

• Definition: buying and selling of goods and services, or transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic network.
• Negative effects: deception, identity robbery, pornography, and hacking.

Communication Technology in Healthcare

• Benefits:
  • Easy access to patient medical records.
  • Reduction in medical errors.
  • Greater patient care.
  • Improved patient education.
  • Reduction in cost.
• E-Prescribing: doctors providing medical prescriptions on an electronic device and forwarding it to pharmacies.
• Remote Patient Monitoring: monitoring patients from a remote location, collecting health data and securely transmitting it to the doctor's location.