Challenges in Interpersonal, Intercultural and Technology Aspect in Doctor and Patient Relationship

Abstract

Primary  care  was  the  main  function  of  primary  health  care,  and  towards  this  goal,  doctor-patient  relationship was  important  for  the  health  prevention  and  promotion  component.  Effective  communication  is  essential  for delivering  quality  patient  care  and  building  patient-doctor  relationships  with  compassions  and  shared  respect. Effective  doctor-patient  communication  is  the  heart  of  medicine.  This  is  important  in  the  delivery  of  high- quality  health  care.  Though  communication  between  doctor  and  patient  is  complicated  but  it  is  a  window  of understanding  the  patient’s  perspective  on  the  impact  of  illness.  Through  good  interpersonal  communication patient  can  make  their  doctor  understand  how  to  understand  patient  feeling  about  the  treatment  they  want. Through  good  interpersonal  communication  doctor  can  educate  patients  about  their  care,  including  disease evaluation,  diagnosis,  and  prognosis.    Unfortunately,  this  sometimes  sacrificed  with  the  intrusion  of  business into  the  patient-doctor  relationship,  the  pressures  of  limited  time  to  office  visits,  and  the  sometimes  all- consuming focus on technology. The using of technology can be very helpful for doctor and also patient. But technology need to be used carefully. Patient can be very defensive and make the doctor failed in doing his/her job  because  patient  highly  believe  in  medical  information  that  he/she  get  from  internet.  Another  barrier  to achieve effective communication between doctor and patient in Indonesia is hierarchical social culture. In this type of culture, doctor and patient practice one-way communication style. The current situation satisfies neither doctors  nor  patients.  So,  we  can  see  that  there  are  challenges  related  to  interpersonal  communication, intercultural  communication  and  communication  technology  in  doctor  and  patient  interaction.  Through  this article  I  want  to  offer  a  recommendation  from  communication  science  perspective  about  what  the  doctor  and patient  can  do  about  their  communication  skill,  especially  in  interpersonal  communication,  intercultural communication, and the use of technology in communication.  

Keywords: interpersonal communication, internet, intercultural communication, communication skill