patient safety & quality
patient safety & quality
By Kristina Pirollo-Ketchum, BA, AA, CHL, CRCST
The Role of Bedside Manner in Patient Safety and Quality
The bedside approach, which includes communication, empathy, and engagement of a patient, is of considerable importance in fostering health outcomes. Research and practice indicate that practitioners with a focus on excellent interpersonal skills improve recovery rates, minimize the occurrence of complications, and gain patient trust.”
Focus on patient safety and quality of care is a pillar of the modern healthcare system. These principles deal with avoiding harm to the patients and the provision of evidence-based medical responses that lead to the best health results. Whereas the technical competence and the medical knowledge are crucial, as highlighted by Sharkiya( 2023), the interpersonal activity, such as bedside manner and other interactions, shapes the patient experience, closing the loophole. Bedside manner is the term that can be associated with the communication of healthcare professionals to the patients and their attitude of presenting empathy, respect, and being at the side of a patient. When facilitated by doctors, surgeons, and nurses, compassion assists in developing trust, active listening, and bearing it out. Instead, a negative bedside manner can lead to a dissatisfied patient, anxious feelings, and lost recovery( Sharkiya, 2023). This paper argues that bedside manner is essential to patient safety and quality of care, as it has a direct influence on the outcome of recovery and patient satisfaction.
Effective communication is one of the key contributions of a bedside manner to the safety of patients. Patients can better comprehend their health conditions and adhere to medical prescriptions whenever their physicians communicate effectively on diagnoses, treatment processes, and procedures. For example, Dhaliwal and Dang( 2024) found that common, but potentially modifiable, factors increase readmission risk based on a study. Some of these factors include clinician or system-level problems. On the contrary, poor communication has been attributed to bad outcomes such as medical mistakes and adverse events. Moreover, they discovered that one of the key causes of patient readmission was poor information transfer between providers, especially those providers based in hospitals, and primary care providers.
Emotional support and empathy are also important factors in the recovery of patients. According to Babaii, et al.( 2021), effective communication is an easy yet effective means nurses could employ to establish comfort, joy, and energy in order to diminish sorrow and agony experienced by the patient. Patients felt more listened to and understood and felt less stressed, which improved healing rates. This all was according to a study conducted by Babaii, et al.( 2021), who concluded that empathetic interactions between medical workers and patients contributed to increased pain control and emotional self-regulation, which is essential to recovery.
In addition to that, patient trust and patient compliance are affected by bedside manner. The ability of patients to open up to their caregivers and comply with care plans is more likely to happen when they feel that their caregivers are approachable and compassionate. According to the article by Herath, et al.( 2023), the implementation of patient-focused interventions into clinical practice is a realistic way of enhancing the quality of medical care. This implies that such a perception by the patients in the parts where they feel cared for will lead to better cooperation and reduced infection and re-hospitalization rates.
In conclusion, clinical interventions do not exist in a vacuum and affect patient safety and quality of care but rather are profoundly affected by humanistic components of care. The bedside approach, which includes communication, empathy, and engagement of a patient, is of considerable importance in fostering health outcomes. Research and practice indicate that practitioners with a focus on excellent interpersonal skills improve recovery rates, minimize the occurrence of complications, and gain patient trust. Therefore, bedside manner should be a crucial issue of healthcare quality improvement.
Kristina Pirollo-Ketchum, BA, AA, CHL, CRCST, is an independent consultant and principal of Ketchum Konsulting, LLC.
References:
Babaii A, Mohammadi E and Sadooghiasl A.( 2021). The Meaning of the Empathetic Nurse – Patient Communication: A Qualitative Study. Journal of Patient Experience, 8. https:// doi. org / 10.1177 / 23743735211056432
Dhaliwal JS and Dang AK.( 2024, June 7). Reducing Hospital Readmissions. Nih. gov; StatPearls Publishing. https:// www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov / books / NBK606114 /
Herath M, Reid JL, Ting YY, Bradshaw EL, Edwards S, Bruening M and Maddern GJ.( 2023). Patient focused interventions and communication in the surgical clinic: a systematic review and meta-analysis. EClinicalMedicine, 57, 101893. https:// doi. org / 10.1016 / j. eclinm. 2023.101893
Sharkiya SH.( 2023). Quality communication can improve patient-centred health outcomes among older patients: a rapid review. BMC Health Services Research, 23( 1). https:// doi. org / 10.1186 / s12913-023-09869-8
34 • www. healthcarehygienemagazine. com • jul-aug 2025