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Successful social marketing campaign to promote COVID-19 vaccination for the unvaccinated relies on increasing positive reactions but also reducing negative responses to persuasive messages. This study aims to investigate the relative effects of narrative vs non-narrative public service announcements (PSAs) promoting COVID-19 vaccination on both positive and negative reactions. Using social media as a tool for disseminating marketing campaigns provides a great opportunity to examine the effectiveness of narrative PSAs on vaccination intention, especially among unvaccinated young adults, who were the target audience of the social marketing. This study explores the role of empathy and psychological reactance as underlying mechanisms.

An experiment involving unvaccinated young adults was conducted with a one-factor, two-condition (message type: narrative vs non-narrative) design.

Results indicated that the narrative (vs non-narrative) PSAs led to greater empathy. While no direct effects of message type emerged on psychological reactance or vaccination intention, results of a serial multi-mediator model confirmed that empathy and psychological reactance mediated the effects of message type on vaccination intention.

The study extends the understanding of narrative persuasion by examining an underlying mechanism behind narrative persuasion in a COVID-19 PSA. This study provides empirical evidence of the important role of empathy in processing narrative PSAs. Moreover, the current study expands narrative persuasion’s applicability to COVID-19 vaccination intervention messages for unvaccinated young adults, highlighting the effectiveness of narrative persuasion as a social marketing communication tool.

The purpose of the study is to provide insights on the COVID-19 pandemic communication from the lessons learned by health communication executives—how they perceived the COVID-19 pandemic and recommend preparing for communication management of future public health crises.

A number of top health communication executives in the United States, who worked in the healthcare industry for at least 25 years and held titles like director, president and chief strategist, were interviewed for their unique perspectives on the COVID-19 pandemic. This study used the contingency theory of strategic conflict management for qualitative deductive analysis of the following segmentations of key factors that drove organizational communication management decision making during the pandemic: organization characteristics, relationship characteristics, general external climate, external publics and the issue under question.

Health communication executives heavily relied on their past health communication experiences, which led to nuanced understandings of the COVID-19 pandemic. Practically, the health communication executives urged future practitioners to constantly assess risks, hire and use diverse and representative decision-makers; set a communication protocol; and keep the communication in perspective. Theoretically, the contingency theory is furthered—there appears to be a theoretical linkage between the construct of general external climate and the construct of the external public.

The unique perspectives of top health communication executives, based in the United States, provided in-depth insights on the COVID-19 pandemic—its nuances, challenges and main influences (e.g. political, racial, etc.). These takeaways and recommendations can be adapted by other organizations and future health communicators in other parts of the world.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the clinical communication using Tamale Teaching Hospital as a case.

The paper is based on the Reassure, Explain, Listen, Answer, Take Action and Express Appreciation (RELATE) model and the Four Habits models of Clinical Communication.

The results of the study indicate that leadership conducted staff meetings with some of the components of the RELATE model. These include staff meetings, employee rounding and communication/notice boards. The results of the study also suggest that much as some parts of the Four Habits model was used in provider–patient communication, certain aspects of the model were absent. The study identified some communication challenges including poor dissemination, lack of unity among some health workers, poor attendance in meetings and, with respect to patients, language barrier, patients’ reluctance to disclose their actual health problems to health providers, lack of privacy and lack of a friendly environment.

Providers, especially physicians, should be given training on the local languages in areas where they perform their services. Health service providers should receive as part of their learning in-depth training on the Four Habits model of Clinical Communication, especially the Medical Officers.

It is imperative to embrace evidence-based practices/models aimed at securing proper communication in all hospitals but most especially teaching hospitals.

This paper aims to find out accredited social health activists’ (ASHA) communication competence and effectiveness while working as leaders with groups in the rural setting. ASHA, as the “first point of contact” for pregnant women in rural areas, plays a significant role in building awareness and disseminating key information at critical times (e.g. antenatal and post-natal period), promotes healthy maternal and newborn care practices and facilitates identification and referral of maternal and newborn complications. ASHA plays critical role of a leader in bridging the gap between health system and community. In the entire process, effective communication competency is the key to her effectiveness.

The study adopts seven items from the farmers communication (FACOM) scale of communication measures developed by Udai Pareek and Y.P Singh. Preliminary editing of the items was done keeping certain points in mind such as the items should not be judgemental, should be acts of behaviour, should be observable and should be simple. This scale was adopted for the study, as it was designed to measure farmers’ communication competence and suited the context. The evaluation criteria included the seven essential elements of communication identified in the FACOM scale.

Results from the study identified a need to sensitise ASHAs on the critical role of effective communication and need for investing more in building her capacity for health communication. The trainings being imparted to ASHAs have to be strengthened in terms of communication skills. They should focus upon developing all three variables of communication skills equally and integrating them to get desired results.

The study was conducted in one state while the programme is running across the country. The sample size was small.

The learning of the study will help in developing a better understanding of the beneficiaries’ perspectives and their expectations regarding ASHAs communication process in the leadership role which she performs. Such understanding will not only be instructive but may also prove transformative for the benefit of both ASHAs and her community, whose support is critical to the success of the programme. This learning will feed into the policy planning and communication and capacity building strategy of the ASHA programme and may lead to better and more effective strategies and tools of communication.

Research study is original. Keeping the observers’ status in mind, questionnaire was translated in Hindi language. Twenty ASHAs were selected randomly from small villages of Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in India. The scale was presented to at least five observers (all females) for one ASHA. These observers/judges were the ones who knew ASHA well and with whom she had communicated at some point of time as part of her work.

This chapter focusses on the contribution of health professionals' communication competences to patients. We propose a model of communication to be used in the therapeutic relationship, supported by a literature review. The methodology is qualitative. Four focus groups (FGs) composed of Portuguese health professionals (N = 25), such as medical doctors, nurses and professors in health fields, were conducted during 2017 and 2018. All the participants of FGs validated a three-factor aggregated and interdependent model, which is composed of assertiveness, clear language and positivity (ACP model). The factors reinforce the therapeutic relationship and improve health literacy, thus reinforcing the patient's health and well-being. The argument is that health is wealth, so if the communication can improve health, then this has positive social implications. The study is a response to the lack of consensus in the literature on what specific and operative communication competences the health professional should perform in clinical encounters with the patients, and how these competences can improve, in the final instance, their health and well-being.

This study explored how organizational leaders at different hierarchical levels may communicatively enhance employees' health and well-being. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, it proposed a model that connects health-oriented leadership communication at supervisory and executive levels with remote workers' self-care and stress levels during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data collected through a survey of 363 full-time United States (US) employees were analyzed to test the model.

Results showed health-oriented communication at the two leadership levels directly influenced employees' self-care, which in turn reduced their stress levels. Further, executive leaders' health-oriented leadership communication indirectly impacted remote workers' self-care through its positive association with supervisors' health-oriented leadership communication.

This study offers much-needed guidelines for executive leaders, supervisors and communication practitioners seeking to meet employees' growing expectations for a healthy work environment in today's post-pandemic era.

Although the literature has established organizational leadership as a vital determinant for a healthy workforce, few studies have explored leaders' health-specific communication to enhance employee health. This study is the first to conceptualize health-oriented leadership communication at dual hierarchical levels and uncover its influence on employees. The results suggested the importance of health-oriented leadership communication across hierarchical levels in building a healthy workplace.

The purpose of this study is to describe the systematic process in developing an interpersonal communication material for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the City of Manila, Philippines.

The systematic process in the development of an interpersonal communication material is presented. The seven steps in the process included mapping of available health communication materials, needs identification, development of the material, pretesting, finalization, printing/production and orientation on the use of the material.

The process followed an iterative, multistakeholder approach in order to ensure that all important insights are obtained and that the final material is contextualized, easily communicated and culturally appropriate. It is important to consider context and culture on top of the methodology in order to ensure development of appropriate interpersonal communication material. It is also important that the experience of the primary health-care workers on the use of the interpersonal communication material is properly documented for future reference, through both quantitative and qualitative evaluations.

The seven-step systematic process utilized can be used as a model in developing health communication materials in the field of health promotion and education.

The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a disaster preparedness communication curriculum for public health graduate students' understanding and use of communication strategies for reaching vulnerable groups with preparedness messages.

A training module was piloted in a health communication seminar in 2008 (n=9 students) and 2009 (n=15 students). The interactive module included lectures, videos, case study discussions, and disaster plan and message development. Students gave presentations to a panel of risk communication specialists from the university and state health department.

Analysis of Likert‐type pre/post‐survey items showed significant improvement in students' knowledge about disaster communication and confidence regarding use of communication principles to develop clear messages (p<0.05). In response to open‐ended questions, students reported enjoying the “practical experience of developing messages” and learning the “importance of media and health professionals working together”.

This pilot evaluation involved a relatively small sample of students. Although students were assured that all survey responses would remain anonymous, social desirability may have played a role in their written responses.

The educational module appears to be effective in engaging public health students in disaster communication strategies for reaching vulnerable populations. Studying effective communication strategies well before a disaster situation occurs will help to anticipate community‐specific communication needs and reduce concern.

The instructional approach and content developed could be adapted for training health care and public health professionals to communicate effectively in planning for and responding to disaster situations.

This paper aims to extend the consideration of distributed leadership in health-care settings. Leadership is typically studied from the classical notion of the place of single leaders and continues to examine distributed leadership within small teams or horizontally. The purpose is to develop a practical understanding of how distributed leadership may occur vertically, between different layers of the health-care leadership hierarchy, examining its influence on health-care outcomes across two hospitals.

Using semi-structured interviews, data were collected from 107 hospital employees (including executive leadership, clinical management and clinicians) from two hospitals in Australia and the USA. Using thematic content analysis, an iterative process was adopted characterized by alternating between social identity and distributed leadership literature and empirical themes to answer the question of how the practice of distributed leadership influences performance outcomes in hospitals?

The perceived social identities of leadership groups shaped communication and performance both positively and negatively. In one hospital a moderating structure emerged as a leadership dyad, where leadership was distributed vertically between hospital hierarchal layers, observed to overcome communication limitations. Findings suggest dyad creation is an effective mechanism to overcome hospital hierarchy-based communication issues and ameliorate health-care outcomes.

The study demonstrates how current leadership development practices that focus on leadership relational and social competencies can benefit from a structural approach to include leadership dyads that can foster these same competencies. This approach could help develop future hospital leaders and in doing so, improve hospital outcomes.

The purpose of the study is to explore the suitability of social media influencers (SMIs) for communicating public health messages via social media platforms. The study identifies key persuasive communication components that influence individuals' attitudes and, subsequently, intentions to follow health-related information shared by SMIs.

Qualitative interviews with healthcare workers and interactions with 332 active social media users via structured online questionnaires were used for data collection. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse responses.

Results indicate that SMIs' credibility, SMI–individual homophily and quality of information shared by the SMI are the significant factors determining individuals' attitudes towards the information received. Furthermore, the individual's attitude significantly impacts their intention to follow information shared by the SMI. The study thus verifies the mediating role of attitude in persuasive communication.

The current study can serve as a foundation for future work to examine the suitability of SMIs for tasks other than marketing.

The study provides insights for planning and implementing SMI-sourced communication in the public health context. The study enhances the understanding of the tested relationships and thereby increases scholars' and practitioners' ability to leverage SMIs for health-related communication.

Whilst SMIs are attracting increasing attention in consumer markets, the study suggests that they can be used in public health communication. Considering the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation, the empirical study provides insights into SMIs' role in persuasive public health communication amid a health crisis.

The peer review history for the article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-01-2021-0012