Therapeutic communication as a factor for humanizing Primary Care

DOI: 10.15343/0104-7809.2012363502506

Abstract

Communicating is a natural and intrinsic act of human nature. Language builds codes and possibilities for sharing ideas,
thoughts and emotions among individuals and their cognitive, cultural, psychological and affective patterns. What seems to
be so natural in fact implies a refined and complex process of experiences and learning, which in the health field has essential
relevance in the health professional-patients relationships, because of defining in a great extent humanized care. Thus, communication
cannot be a barrier but, on the contrary, it must open ways for the appropriate acceptance in Primary Care on the
basis of an attentive listening and an empathic between patients and health team. Communication with therapeutic purposes
re-aligns the encounter of the health professional with the user as regards the most crucial axle: interpersonal relationships in
which both really accepts one another and are treated as worthy persons in a helping relationship. From this principle, communication
becomes a factor of humanization in health care because it favors understanding and reciprocity concerning the
contents surrounding meaning of diseases and coherent attitudes before the treatment and the promotion of health and life.
The challenge resides in finding technical mediations with human competence for the construction of new postures where
communication and care are not denied, but made real in the best possible ways. It must be practiced on the basis of the
combination of rights and responsibilities, in which ethics of care is ascribed a crucial position.