Public relation in nursing

1. PUBLIC RELATIONS IN COMMUNITY
HEALTH NURSING
Presented by: Pratibha

2. INTRODUCTION
Hospital and community are part of the social system.
Nursing personnel and medical professional
comprises a large portion of hospital or health care
system that deals with people.
Hence, public relations are essential for community
health nurses to understand the tactics of handling
human beings. It will provide for success of the
institution as a whole and the nurse administrator also.

3. DEFINITIONS
John D Millet defines, public relations knowing
of what the public expects and explaining
how administration is meeting these desires.
WB Graves defines, public relations involve a
flow of information and understanding not
alone from the agency to the public, but from
the agency to the public.

4. Public relation is all about relationship efforts,
commitment and activities, which go into building.
The right sort of relationships where there is good
public relations, the hospital and health care are
functioning at its best and contribute maximum to
which it serves.
 To raise the standard of care to the highest level.
 To improve the existing channels of communication
and establish new ways.

5. Continue……
 To provide the concept of what a hospital and a
health center are.
 To ensure financial support
 To create mutual understanding and good will
through proper communication
 To provide extra services of volunteers.

6. Continue…..
 To keep in touch with the community to
assess their needs.
 To interpret the expectation of the community
to the top level management.
 Project a good image of the hospital through
effective staff performance

7. PUBLIC RELATIONS OF CHN
PERSONNEL
Hospital administrators
Relatives and
public
Patient
Family
Press reporter
Other health care
personnel
Community
organization
Community leaders

8. IMPORTANT FEATURES OF HUMAN
RELATION THEORY
 The need for recognition of
human element in an organization
 Good supervision is exercise with
proper understanding of
subordinates
 Communication and consultation
between nurse, managers and the
workers.

9. Continue…..
 Economic incentive is far less powerful than the
personal and social incentives
 The flow of work and arrangement of operators
should give full play to the Informal organization
of the workers.

10. BASIC FACTORS OF GOOD
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Determine what community wants know.
In hospital or PHCs the opinion of the public about
the quality of care general famous reputation
hospital, the doctors and public knows hospital
health center through bearing hospital community
centre beheld people prime importance.
appearance, attitude, spoken consideration
relations
Public relation responsibility the chairman the
promotion the staff the responsibility everyone
director sweeper continually reminded

11. METHODS PROMOTING GOOD
PUBLIC RELATIONSHIP
OPERATIVE
METHODS
COMMUNICATIVE
METHODS

12. OPERATIVE METHODS
These methods are essentially connected
with every aspect of hospital operations
including those that are carried out by such
workman as telephone operators, enquiry,
office personnel, health personnel and others.

13. Three fundamental ingredients of hospital
operation
Cheerful and courteous behavior
Prompt and efficient treatment
Clean surroundings and well
appearance of workers.

14. Some aspects of improving operation of
hospital and PHC
 A high quality of patient care is the key to
good public relations
 Adequate physical facilities with good
functional layout
 Waiting room with bench or chairs, water,
refreshment facility in the outpatient
department

15. Continue……
 To make others happy, one must be happy himself
Good morale of workers not only increases
efficiency, but workers with high morale interact in a
positive manner with one another and also with
patients and the community
 Operating efficiency with effective coordination
among all clinical departments and others
supportive service system from good administration
organization structure, policies, procedures and
authority and accountability should be clearly
understood by each other

16. COMMUNICATIVE METHODS
These methods employ means of communication
in all possible forms to enable the hospital or PHC
to convey its message to the public. Some of
these are also intermixed in a way with intra
mutual functions of the hospital or health centers.

17. Operative methods may be used
in the following ways
 Making available appropriate information to
the patients, their relatives and visitors. A
discharge interview with attending physician
can serve this purpose well
 An open approach to visitors without
interfering in the routine care. Large number
of visitor to the patient cannot be avoided in
our socio-cultural altos.

18. Continue…..
 The queries of the relatives and visitor can be
satisfied if a senior nurse is made available in
the ward during visiting hours for this purpose
 Administration rounds by hospital administrators
at different levels. However they should be as
Informal as possible.

19. Continue…
 A provision to listen to
verbal complaints
instead of insisting on
written ones
 Prompt reply to
questions
 Provision of suggestion
box at appropriate place

20. Continue…
 Visual communications, film shows, exhibitions,
hospital brochure to be displayed
 Hospital tours by groups such as school
teachers, students, housewives and members of
women's organization, people representation
and religious leaders
 Using mass media would be helpful to improve
public relations.

21. Continue…
 Holding of annual hospital day or open day
house where public can be shown every
aspect of the hospitals operation including
some of the highly technical functions
 Advisory committee role should be to
suggest to the health administration,
methods to overcome their surroundings and
to interpret the functioning of the primary
health centre to the community.

22. QUALITIES FOR PUBLIC RELATIONSHIP
STAFF/PUBLIC RELATION OFFICER
 Warm and friendly with good common sense.
 Good organization ability
 Good judgment, creativity and then critical ability.
 Imagination and ability to appreciate others.
 Calm and not excitable persons
 Ability to take pains.

23. Continue…
 Lively and inquisitive mind.
 Willingness to work long and in less constraint, whenever necessary,
especially in pulse polio campaigns.
 Resilient and a sense of humor.
 Flexibility and ability to deal with many problems
 Ability to communicate in any languages
 Capable of correcting and sub editing others communication.
 Loyalty to the organization.

24. BAD ELEMENTS AFFECTING
PUBLIC RELATIONS
 Indifferent care-Lack of human touch.
 Low quality care-quality of linen, diet,
equipment, facilities, and cleanliness, etc.
 Lack of information-especially on the patient
disease conditions.
 Lack of guidance.
 Lack of bodily or physical comforts.

25. Continue…..
 Delays at every doorstep-not doing home-visits regularly
 Overcrowding in the clinic.
 Long queue-improper arrangement
 Noise-using harsh words to the public
 Poor sanitation in and around the hospitals or health
centers.
 Behavior of the staff

26. INDICATORS FOR ASSESSING
PUBLIC RELATIONS
 Patient satisfaction surveys.
 General opinion poll.
 Quality of care using check list.
 Number of complaints received.
 Extent of voluntary effort by the community.
 Turnover of health staff
 Consistency of attendance of patients in
clinics and health centers.
 Donations.

27. Continue…….
 Letters to the editor in local papers.
 Inpatients leaving as against medical advice (AMA).
 Good recovery-achievement of the Health activities
 Poor recovery and high death rate
 Vital rates, such as infant mortality rate, maternal
mortality rate, birth rate, couple protection rate,
death rate in the area.
 Incidence and prevalence rate of communicable
diseases

28. Conclusion
It is necessary to provide a high quality of services to
educate the public on the hospital's problems or
limitation. The hospital has to extract function, survive
and grow as a pail of social system. Nurses are making
a large pail in this social system-(hospital). Hence, the
quality of nursing care should be of high grade and the
communication between patients relatives and the
community should be cordial Nursing services have an
extremely important role to play in this respect the
patients and community have a legitimate right to expect
a reasonably satisfactory standard of service and the
hospital has a commitment to meet the public relations

29. REFERENCES
 Kamalam S, “Essentials in Coomunity Health Nursing Practice”, 3rd
ed.2017, Published by Jaypee Publishers, pp-592-595.
 Clement I, textbook on “ ward management in nursing practice”,1st ed,
2015, Published by Jaypee Publishers, pp-234-236.
 Hansen-Horn, T. L., Dostal Nef, B. (ed.), (2008): Public Relations from
Theory to Practice, Pearson, Boston
 Traynowicz-Hetherington, L., Ekachai, D., Parkinson, M. (2001): Public
Relations in the Helth Care Industry, in: R. Heath (ur.): Handbook of Public
Relations, Sage Publication, Inc., Thousand Oaks.
 Baskin, O., Arnoff, C., Lattimore, D. (1997): Public Relations – The
Profession and the Practice, McGraw Hill, Boston.