Dr. Kazim Ali
“Nonverbal communication is any meaning conveyed through sounds, behaviors, and artifacts other than words.”Prof Bachner, Araceli
It is imperative to reexamine and embrace the fundamental non-verbal communication skills ingrained in us from birth. The million-dollar question lingers: Are we harnessing these innate abilities in our daily healthcare interactions? Consider the instinctive skills we possessed upon entering the world – the Plantar Grasp, Rooting Reflex, Moro (Startle) – all intricate non-verbal methods nature subtly imparted when verbal communication was beyond our grasp. Isn’t it time to rediscover and apply these primal concepts to bridge communication gaps in healthcare globally using nonverbal communication types (9) in number?
“Most messages are communicated through nonverbal means.”Prof Bachner, Araceli
Types of Non-verbal Communication
1. Kinesics body movement (i.e. hand gestures, eye contact)
2. Haptics touch (I.e. handshake or hug)
3. Appearance, Objects, and Artifacts body and surroundings (i.e. white coats, tattoos, jewelry, or hats)
4. Proxemics space (i.e., personal vs public)
5. Environment the space we occupy (i.e., decorations, color schemes)
6. Chronemics- time (i.e., early to a job interviewed Appointment or fashionably late to a party or late for Code activation)
7. Paralanguage vocal qualities ( accents, volume)
8. Silence when we don’t use words or utterances.
Despite the breakdowns in global healthcare communication systems and Healthcare leadership’s silence for years resembles a state akin to being on costly Verbal/EHR ECMO backed by taxpayers’ money to help underpin stability.
For Sapiens, addressing the communication challenge is crucial for advancing the resilience and responsiveness of healthcare ecosystems worldwide.
Did Mr,Ms? COVID not exhibit an impressive operational triangle akin to healthcare systems utilizing processes resembling our (CPMs) for measurable outcomes? Its triumphs may be stemmed from prioritizing structural foundations to communicate with fellows nonverbally.
Was the fellow not achieving the SMART goals safely efficiently, effectively, timely with a human centric approach? Did the fellow not show resilience and adaptive resilience with adaptive leadership capabilities to the sapiens?
Don’t we call the fellow’s measures our IOM defined Quality measures in our current HC systems(Healing Hives with noise instead of melodies)to achieve extraordinary quality care outcomes?
Following a thorough review of Bachner, Araceli’s edited book “Introduction to Human Communication,”
I’ve drawn insightful connections to the realm of healthcare communications & emphasized the need of an elemental patient centric resilient structure for resilient Nonverbal communication ways to push HC towards adaptive resilience to tackle such fellows and climate
Author’s biography
Dr. Kazim Ali, a Harvard Medical School graduate student and PhD candidate in artificial and natural intelligence at the Kempner Institute, pioneers global healthcare solutions.
