Transparency in Communication

You attend college to receive a degree in communications. Along the way you take classes that emphasize the importance of transparency and an open line of communication between parties. Then you graduate, get a job for a healthcare facility, and suddenly realize everything you've learned over the last 4+ years isn't necessarily how it works.

Although specific communication techniques and forums vary depending on what type of company or organization you are working for, theories stay the same. But this isn't necessarily true for the healthcare system. Although you, and some others, may be advocating for these theories to be put in place the rest of the administration and staff are not necessarily going to share your opinion.

There is one main difference between healthcare communication and non healthcare communication. Transparency. The more transparent a company the more people feel they can trust it, the more they will use that companies product or service, and the more successful that company is. But the healthcare system wants as little transparency as possible. Although there are a variety of reasons for this, it creates a mess of communication. Those in charge of communicating between publics for the healthcare system are supposed to do their job effectively but are expected to do it without actually communicating all, much less bits and pieces, of what is "really" going on. It seems transparency is believed to be the key to successful communication in all types of organizations, except healthcare. And whether or not the communication professionals agree with this isn't the main concern.