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Interpersonal Communication Health Officer in Free Medical Service

Activities at the Health Sciences Department Laboratory

Naldo

, Hardika Widi Satria

, and Aditya Denny Pratama

Social and humanities Department, Vocational Education Program, Universitas Indonesia

Health Sciences Department, Vocational Education Program, Universitas Indonesia

Keywords: Health Communication, Health Services, Interpersonal Communication

Abstract: Health services are needed by women and men, both young people and the elderly. Even people who look

healthy need to do medical treatment, especially to check the level of health and the possibility of serious

illnesses that have not yet shown by symptoms. The role of health workers in creating effective interpersonal

communication with users of medical services can affect the outcome of health services. Cadres and health

staff of the Laboratory Health Sciences Department, Vocational Education Program, Universitas Indonesia

invite the public to care about their health. The earlier a disease is detected, the faster help can be given. In

this way, the disease does not proceed to a more severe stage, while preventing more complicated help. This

study aims to describe interpersonal communication of health personnel in community service free medical

services activities. The research method is qualitative. Informants are visitors to medical treatment activities,

the cadres and the health workers. Data collection using in-depth interviews and participant observation. Data

analysis was performed using content analysis. The results of the study are the perspective of interpersonal

health communication power with visitors to do the treatment services and characterised by perceptions of

the communication style of officers. The Health Sciences Cluster Laboratory needs to hold applicative

interpersonal communication training for health workers to improve the quality of the treatment services.

1 INTRODUCTION

Health communication is an evolving field that has

shifted from an emphasis on health education towards

behaviour and social change.

There is evidence that

communication can be a useful tool, if utilised in a

planned and integrated strategy, to make a significant

difference to the behaviours of individuals and

populations on several health issues (Goldsteina et al.,

2015).

There are several identifications of the main

dimensions of service quality that prioritises

customer satisfaction, including means of

communication, empathy, responsiveness and

responsiveness or access to provide services to

customers quickly (Ilutagaol, 2012). One form of

health effort that seeks to bring health service access

closer to the community is to foster the development

of health services aimed at providing convenience to

the public in obtaining essential health services.

The implementation of health services in the

health sciences laboratory is based on one of the noble

values of the tri dharma of higher education, namely

community service. Physiotherapy laboratory has a

driving force, the frontline and the closest to the

community who have an essential role in monitoring

public health. There are still often complaints about

health services such as health workers who are not

friendly, rigid, fussy, lack of smile as a picture of

patients who are still attached to the implementation

of health services which proves that the health

services provided by medical and health workers have

not provided optimal satisfaction for patients. It

should be noted that the behaviour and

communication style of health workers can have

important implications for the community. People

tend to show greater satisfaction with health workers

who allow them to talk, give time to listen, provide an

explanation of the disease and treatment that must be

done, and show concern, compared to health workers

who apply otherwise. The higher satisfaction felt by

the community, tends to be followed by meetings that

take place continuously and become routine with

health workers so that the satisfaction of health care

workers is directly proportional to compliance with

the advice and advice of health workers.

Naldo, ., Widi Satria, H. and Denny Pratama, A.

Interpersonal Communication Health Ofﬁcer in Free Medical Service Activities at the Health Sciences Department Laboratory.

DOI: 10.5220/0010169100002967

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of Vocational Higher Education (ICVHE 2019) - Empowering Human Capital Towards Sustainable 4.0 Industry, pages 135-140

ISBN: 978-989-758-530-2; ISSN: 2184-9870

135

The testing of physiotherapy health services in

the physiotherapy labs aims to provide useful and

superior contributions to the community through

community service activities and fostering

partnerships with various health service institutions,

hospitals, related educational institutions, both

domestically and abroad, and professional association

organisations. The main objective of the

physiotherapy laboratory for the community is to be

able to provide services by developing, maintaining

and restoring bodily movements and functions

throughout the life span by using manual handling,

increased motion, equipment (physical,

electrotherapy and mechanical), functional training,

as well as communication and education.

Physiotherapy is a form of health service aimed

at individuals and/or groups to develop maintaining

and restoring bodily movements and functions

throughout the life cycle using manual handling,

increased motion, equipment (physical,

electrotherapy and mechanical), communication

function training (Keputusan Menteri Kesehatan,

2001). According to the Indonesian Ministry of

Health Physiotherapy is a health service aimed at

individuals and /or groups to develop, maintain, and

restore motion and function throughout the life cycle

using physical modalities, physical agents,

mechanical, motion and communication.

West Java is one of the primary sources of grain

production and main rice granaries in Indonesia, but

ironically there are still sub-districts in the poor

category. Referring to data released by the Central

Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2019, Jonggol is one of the

regions in West Java that has a low Human

Development Index (HDI) of only 64.94. This

situation has an impact on human quality and low

public health due to the lack of public awareness of

the importance of health awareness.

The purpose of this study is to describe the

interpersonal communication style of health workers

with the community and cadres, determine the

perceptions of patients, cadres and community

leaders on interpersonal communication of health

workers and the barriers and effectiveness of

communication in community service activities in

physiotherapy laboratories.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Communication is central to the delivery of health

care and the promotion of well-being. Health

communication efforts have to capture the attention

actively and personally engage health care

participants to influence health decisions and

behaviours (Kreps and Neuhauser, 2013).

Communication is a family of knowledge that

intersects with other kinds of family. In the context of

communication research, it is essential to deliver

health messages to the public. Through this context,

health issues that enter the private sphere become a

challenge for health practitioners, so communication

techniques are needed that can embrace patients so

that changes in attitudes and behaviour in dealing

with health problems.

While more health care consumers and providers

now understand that communication is a central

social process in the provision of health care delivery

and the promotion of public health, many do not

always recognise that effective communication is a

complex and fragile human process that demands

strategic design, careful monitoring, and responsive

adaptation (Kreps and Neuhauser, 2010).

A paradigm

shift in research on performance and health

communication, moving away from individual-

focused behaviour change communication, and

toward a culture-centred approach that considers

community participation concerning broader social

and structural issues (McConnell, 2016).

In the point of view of communication science,

the relationship between health workers and patients

is included in interpersonal communication, or for

therapeutic health communication. Therapeutic

communication includes interpersonal

communication with a starting point for mutual

understanding between officers and patients. The

fundamental problem of this communication is the

existence of mutual needs between health workers

and patients so that it can be categorised into

interpersonal communication between doctors and

patients, doctors help, and patients receive help

(Manoppo et al., 2014).

Mediated communication—in the context of

journalism, advertising, public relations, and strategic

communication—is an effective mechanism for

detecting, responding to, preventing, and controlling

global health concerns (McConnell, 2016).

Interpersonal communication is the most appropriate

choice to overcome problems in the local scope.

Communication is qualitative, more intimate, and

persuasive., a key person is needed to convey to the

audience because it will produce extraordinary

effects. In this study, the critical person is a health

expert and medical staff to answer health issues that

are needed by the community.

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3 METHODOLOGY

The study used a descriptive study design with a

qualitative approach. The location was at the Cinta

Kasih Heesu Foundation in West Java in November

2018. The research respondents were visitors of the

trial of free health services in the physiotherapy

laboratory that received health services, health

workers as responsible. The respondent’s criteria are

intensive integration with free health service

activities and willing to be interviewed.

Data collection techniques were carried out with

participant observation methods. Researchers

observed ongoing health service activities in the free

health service of physiotherapy laboratory. In-depth

interviews for visitors, health workers, and

community leaders and Focus Group Discussion

(FGD) ) were conducted. Information regarding the

health workers communication with visitors in the

physiotherapy laboratory while providing health

service is explored. Data is processed and analysed

using content analysis.

4 RESULT AND CONCLUSION

The target of the activity is in the middle to lower

classes under the care of the Heesu Love Foundation.

The Laboratory of Physiotherapy in the Health

Sciences Group of the Vocational Education Program

UI in collaboration with the Hermina Hospital Group

provides free health services for the underprivileged.

The activity was carried out in November 2018 at the

Heesu Love Foundation in West Java starting at 08:00

to 16:00 WIB.

Physiotherapy is one part of the health sciences

that has areas in the field of Promotive (promotion),

Preventive (prevention), Curative (treatment), and

Rehabilitative (Rehabilitation). The Physiotherapy

Laboratory is one of the laboratories of the health

sciences family which is used to facilitate the synergy

between theory and practice, where the scope is

designed to meet practicum standards for pediatric

physiotherapy, musculoskeletal physiotherapy,

neuromuscular physiotherapy, and cardiopulmonary

physiotherapy.

Respondents in this study were 51 visitors to the

free trial activities of physiotherapy health services in

the physiotherapy laboratory in November 2018 Age

of informants, 92% women and 8% men with an age

range of 57% over 50 years, 23 % of ages 41-50 years,

16% aged 31-40 years, and 4% under 30 years. In this

case, the majority of middle-aged women can be

grouped into focus in research discussions. The

informant’s education level is 69% of elementary

school graduates and 31% of junior high schools with

76% professions becoming a housewife and 14%

becoming workers with the remaining 10% being

farmers, factory workers. The low level of education

makes the majority of middle-aged women choose to

work to take care of the household (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Respondent Profile.

Complaints of informants varied, 35% of

informants felt complaints in the lower body such as

legs, ankles, calves, knees and thighs, then 22% in the

head or neck and 20% in the upper body such as

shoulders, arms, elbows, hands, fingers stomach,

stomach and back. The most frequent cause for

respondents felt was 40% had joint pain such as knee

pain or shoulder pain, 20% had headaches, 8% had

muscle stiffness, aches, or muscle cramps and 7% had

back pain. After observing the complaints of patients

visiting health services, it can be said that awareness

of the importance of health is still low because 63%

of respondents have not participated in the national

health insurance program (JKN) by the Badan

Penyelenggara Jaminan Sosial Kesehatan (BPJS)

from the government. Respondents still rely on free

health check services whose time is not determined.

This situation can be seen from the 59% of

respondents who have taken a free health check

before (Figure 2).

Figure 2: The Health Condition of The Respondent.

Interpersonal Communication Health Ofﬁcer in Free Medical Service Activities at the Health Sciences Department Laboratory

137

The community health centres (PUSKESMAS)

is a favourite place for respondents to check their

health in the event of a health problem. These

findings can be seen from the respondents’ health

checkpoints which are 55% health centres, 31%

health clinics, and 14% hospitals. The period for

respondents to examine their health within one year

is 35% more than twice per year, 31% once per year,

and 10% twice a year. Ironically, there are still people

who are ignorant of their health condition. This result

can be seen from the data that 24% of respondents in

the past year have never conducted a personal health

check (Figure 3).

Figure 3. The Health Care of The Respondent

From the data, the author has obtained the

general picture of the lower classes who are still

ignorant of the importance of health care. This result

could be considered as the condition where the

community were minimally exposed to the

importance of health care. Low education level is also

one of the factors that influence the level of public

awareness of the importance of health care. Even

though the government facilitate the community for

health insurance such as JKN and BPJS, there are still

many people who have not benefited from the

government program. There needs to be a personal

and persuasive approach to encourage people to be

more concerned about maintaining health because, in

a healthy body, there is a strong soul and will increase

the productivity of the community itself.

The enthusiasm of the community for free

medication is very high. It can be seen from 49% of

respondents conducting a general examination.

General tests carried out on men and women include

blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate,

respiratory rate or other standard checks. In addition,

51% of respondents utilise all facilities in the

activities of free health services such as blood

pressure checks, blood sugar, physiotherapy services,

counselling services etc. The health team makes

every effort to serve the community in dealing with

patient complaints, 100% of patients consider health

workers friendly, hygienic health examination

conditions and satisfactory health services.

The results found a visitor respondent expressed

a positive perception of the communication of health

workers. Positive perceptions are indicated by

respondents’ expressions stating that health workers

speak kindly. 61% of respondents said they were

delighted with the implementation of the health

service program, and 31% said they were quite

satisfied. The attitude of health workers who respond

well to the community when giving an opinion gets a

positive response that health workers can be good

listeners at the time of counselling and are perceived

as friends who are willing to listen to complaints

about patient health problems. In general, patients’

perceptions of health workers are excellent. Every

health service activity of the officers always provides

counselling to the community using persuasive

language, and according to the respondents, it affects

the increasing awareness of the community to

implement a healthy lifestyle.

Figure 4. Documentation of Health Service Activities

Awareness of health is increasing. The findings

of this study are similar to Sugianto’s research (2010)

in the Technical Implementation Unit (UPT) of the

Caring Public Health Center (Puskesmas) in

Bandung. The author found that regarding patient

responses to interpersonal communication of health

workers when providing counselling, the climate

during counselling and time are given for medical

attention at the time counselling felt according to

patient expectations and patients assess the message

of health workers in greeting information quite

clearly and according to patient needs (Sugianto,

2010).

According to Rachmat (2003) “perception is a

personal / client’s view of an event. Perception is one

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of the factors that influence interpersonal

communication. Perception is influenced by

experience, motivation and personality”. In

interpersonal communication, one’s personality is

essential. If we like someone will tend to see

everything related to it, positive.

On the other hand, if we do not like it, we will

see everything negatively. Thus it can be understood

that someone who has an attractive personality for

others will make it easier to give opinions and

attitudes to the person and vice versa. If people like

each other, they will develop pleasant and effective

communication. People will feel happy and

comfortable if they are among people they like.

Instead, it will feel tense and uneasy when being

among people who are not liked and want to end it

(Rakhmat, 2003).

Positive perceptions that have been formed for

health workers are friendly and speak a friendly

language. This fact, of course, makes the distance

between the community and health workers

increasingly close. While in the health profession,

communication becomes more meaningful because it

is the primary method of implementing health

promotion. For this reason, health workers need

special abilities that include skills, intellectual,

technical and interpersonal, which is reflected in the

‘caring’ behaviour in communicating with patients.

The emergence of a positive public perception in the

communication style of health workers can be a

trigger for the delivery of health messages that can

produce changes in community behaviour.

The community believes that free health services

provided by health workers at free health service

activities are of the same quality and have the same

quality as health checks at health centres or paid

examinations (Non-BPJS). The positive response of

the community also gives confidence that this activity

is very beneficial for the community, not only in

terms of health services but also in terms of health

education. While health workers believe that when

providing health counselling, the community

responds positively. The advice given is carried out

by the patient so that the health problems faced by the

patient will bring about change. However, besides

that, health workers also think that there is a need for

attention from the government or the local health

office related to the condition of public health

awareness. To resolve this problem, the community

believes that the government must help the

community in meeting basic needs.

The conclusion can be drawn from respondents

that when communicating officers must understand

the condition of the community. Officers must also

care and pay attention to things that are considered

small when communicating such as gestures, eye

contact and facial expressions. According to Anwar

(2002), 11 eye contact, facial expressions and body

posture are three things that must be considered for

effective communication. Feelings of pleasure when

communicating will be reflected in the face because

the face is a mirror of individual personality. Facial

expressions express thoughts that are passing through

a person. All emotions and various kinds of human

behaviour are expressed in different emotions that are

reflected on the face. So when communicating show

expression that the communicator is interested in the

patient’s conversation material.

The starting point of interpersonal

communication is that mutual understanding between

health workers and patients through the relationship

between health workers and patients will have an

impact on improving health, preventing and healing

illness, and restoring health. A practical

understanding of interpersonal communication is an

attitude change. In order for the health service process

to be effective, health workers must be skilled in

interpersonal therapeutic communication with

patients. Health services are not only oriented

towards medical techniques but are also skilled in

communication. Communication-oriented services

are beneficial for patients in overcoming health

problems they face and can foster confidence and

hope to take action following their lives (Taufik,

2007).

The communication style of health workers in the

free health service trial activities in the physiotherapy

laboratory generates a positive perception of the

respondents of health services. Interaction is a barrier

to communication between health workers and

patients in health care activities. All respondents

agreed that the success of communication would

influence changes in community behaviour so that it

will have a good impact on society.

The habits, customs and culture of the local

community and then routinely conduct

communication training for health workers to

improve the quality of health services. It is expected

that health workers who will be placed in an area need

to be equipped with information about local health

problems. It is hoped that community leaders will

actively participate in overseeing the development of

health services and provide input and information to

the local health officials regarding the

implementation of health service activities.

Meanwhile, health workers are expected to improve

their attitudes and use friendly language in

communicating with patients.

Interpersonal Communication Health Ofﬁcer in Free Medical Service Activities at the Health Sciences Department Laboratory

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to show gratitude to the co-authors

(Hardika Widi Satria and Aditya Denny Pratama) for

sharing their pearls of wisdom and knowledge with

me during the making of this research. I am also

immensely grateful to Program Pendidikan Vokasi UI

for funding the publication of this research. Any

errors and imperfections in this research and should

not tarnish the reputations of these esteemed persons

mentioned.

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4.0 Industry”

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