Communication effectiveness: examining interactions between college health professionals and students on university campuses

Abstract

Objective

To examine how students would describe their communication exchanges with college health professionals on a university campus and also how students perceived those exchanges to be effective health communication. Participants: 48 participants completed the online survey. Methods: An open-ended questionnaire was utilized to collect data. Thematic analysis technique was used to analyze the data. Results: The analysis yielded six themes that emerged from participants' responses: clear communication, instruction, listening, friendliness, immediate feedback, and professionalism. Conclusions: The findings show that students' understanding of efffective health communication differs. Therefore, college health professionals should be cognizant of these differences when communicating with students who access health services on university campuses.

Keywords:

• College
• college health professionals
• effective health communication
• health provider-patient communication
• student health services