Communication is extremely important aspect in each and every organisation and especially for the individuals. As a healthcare professional it is extremely important for an individual to understand and improve personal communication accordingly. Communication improvement is done based on the different situations which is extremely important for an employee to achieve the personal and professional goals. The main focus of a healthcare professional in the career should be to achieve professional objectives which would only happen when the employee is able to communicate with the colleagues and the service users so that he or she is accordingly able to provide the effective services to the service users (Halpern, 2009). Understanding professional developmental aspects for a healthcare professional is of paramount importance and communication is one of them. Hence it is important for the healthcare professionals to make sure communication style and acumen are properly monitored and assessed to get the best possible result out of the career and undergo gradual development. In the present study I have taken an opportunity to assess my communication which would help me to improve as a professional. In this study I will be discussing the different diagnostic tools to understand and assess my communication acumen and will accordingly reflect on the key issues which I face. The different diagnostic tools used by me are Johari window, communication style questionnaire, Personality Test, communication quiz; and communication style assessment (Grossman, 2009). This would be followed by well critiqued literature review and will be supported by a personal action plan which would help me to address the objectives of the study.
I have always felt that communication is essential for the growth and development of an individual not only in the personal sphere but also in the professional life. Especially in the field of healthcare communication becomes extremely important to understand others and express my own views to the colleagues and service users effectively. It is extremely important for me to understand my personal communication style and identify the key communication issues that I face while communicating. There are different diagnostic tools related to communication which are used to understand the communication styles of individual. Since different people have different communication styles the results of these diagnostic tools also differ significantly and this largely helps to improve the overall style of communication with the findings coming out of them. The different diagnostic tools which I will be using to reflect on my communication are: Johari window, Interpersonal Skill Test, Personality Test, communication quiz; and communication style assessment (Arnold & Boggs, 2015).
The Johari window is an effective model which helps to understand and communicate with the colleagues. The basic focus of this model is to build trust on other by revealing certain information about an individual and with the feedback from others one can change the personality effectively. It is largely based on communication and can help to go a long way to make improvements as a professional.
Applying this diagnostic tool helped me to communicate and learn about myself. I normally love interacting but not with everyone and hence it is important for me to build that up. I love to talk with known people but it is also important to mention that as per this model the open area has helped me to understand more about myself by communicating effectively with others. In this case it could be said that the open area shows that what others know about me and what I know about myself. Others know that I am bold and outgoing and love to communication. On the other hand the blind area is the space which I personally don’t know about me and it could be said that people know that I am shy while communicating with new people but I somehow don’t feel that. The hidden area is the quadrant which is hidden to others. The hidden area reveals that I am nervous under pressure (Halpern, 2009).
The Communication Quiz is another key diagnostic tool which helps to understand the personal communication effectively. The communication quiz helps to understand the communication capability and accordingly provides effective insights to me to work upon. I have undergone the communication quiz where I have scored 49.
From my score in the communication quiz it could be said that I am normally a good communicator but at times my communication is affected. It is extremely important for me to receive message correctly which would only happen when I listen to people effectively (Neuendorf, 2016).
The personality test done on me has given me significant insight about my personal being and the way I tend to communicate and handle people.
As per my personality test I am a debater who loves to stick on points whatsoever obviously by providing effective evidence to whatever I say. I am normally intuitive and a thinking person and I tend to communicate very prudently and choose my words effectively. As a professional it might affect my position at times but it would definitely help me to improve my communication. It is also important to mention that tend to be turbulent rather than assertive which means I am always looking for something which might never end and hence I am restless.
From the Communication style assessment test I have learned that I am an intuitive communicator which means that I think about the bigger picture. The result showed has helped me realise that I don’t prefer detail and rather tend to communication to the point which could be at times irritating and insulting for the people who are communicating with me. It might apparently affect my communication with them. In healthcare one needs to communicate more and understand detail and I have realised that being intuitive I am a little different from a normal healthcare professional (Cicco, 2009).
I have applied for interpersonal skill test assessment of which showed that my total score is 55% where I have to work on my listening skills, verbal communication. It is extremely important for me to realise that the results from these diagnostic tools are extremely important for me as they will help me to improve my overall communication and personality which would help me to achieve my personal and professional objectives effectively. The interpersonal skills are extremely important and hence working on the suggested results is extremely important as a student and as an aspiring healthcare professional (Kurtz, Silverman & Draper, 2016).
From the application of the above communication tests I can say that there are number of key issues which I have to address in order to become a successful health and social care professional. For a healthcare professional, communication is of utmost importance and hence it becomes extremely important for me to work on these issues and improve my professional communication effectively. Understandably from the above diagnostic tests one aspect is clear that I have to work upon my listening skills which are one of the major issues which I have to focus on addressing effectively. Listening is extremely important for effective response and the above tests especially the interpersonal skills assessment and even the communication quiz has highlighted this fact that listening skills are not up to the mark and due to this reason despite of being a good communicator at times I face problems with communication. Another key issue which I have found to be a problem in my communication is that I am not assertive which at times leaves me ambiguous and the other person are not able to understand me by any means may be verbally or non verbally (Branch, 2010).
In the last 12 months I have been practicing in the healthcare as an apprentice and I have learned a lot. The entire experience has been a learning curve and it has also helped me to understand the key loopholes in me as a student and as a professional. In the recent past during a routine checkup and a practice session I was taken to a patient ward where I was to practice the process of injection and for that I was responsible to communicate and listen to my seniors. In this case what I did was did not properly listen to my senior and applied the injection on the patient and it was not right and the patient was hurt. I was criticised for my lack of listening intent. Another conversation which I had just a few days back I communicated with one of the other interns and my colleague was hurrying on to her shift and had to go somewhere and was requesting me to do her part of job as well for day. Even though I was reluctant but I couldn’t assert myself thinking she might get hurt and so she left. I was rebuked for such unprofessional act but was spared as I was an intern.
The concepts of listening and assertiveness are extremely important for an individual. Listening and assertiveness are visibly important aspects for an individual to reflect on while communicating. Listening could be defined as the process of decoding a message from the sender which is extremely important for an individual to implement. There are number of key aspects which come together to make a person successful communicator where listening skills and assertiveness are two key components which develop a person. In the transactional communication model listening is an extremely important aspect. It is something which becomes important to reciprocate with actions and for that understanding what the other person is saying is extremely important. From the theoretical point of view “listening” not only means understanding what the other person is saying but also to respect the view even if it is not correct from the personal perspective. Behaviorally listening as a communication issue should be effectively managed and understood. It is important to support the other person completely with body language and behavior. Hence it could be said that in order to improve listening it is important to become much more serious about conversations, understanding detail which is extremely important as a professional and individual, being focused on supporting with behavior and gesture and with positive behavior is important(Coiro et al., 2014). Apart from that assertiveness is also a key aspect for every communicator. Being assertive and sticking to points is extremely important for a person involved in conversation. It could be said that being assertive means saying a particular thing with strong view and statement which is extremely important. In an interactive communication model assertiveness is extremely important as this mainly happens in group discussions and as a leader it is important to take the responsibility and assert properly to make sure a point is perfectly communicated. Assertive communication paired with effective listening skills becomes extremely effective to communicate with the peers and patients that help in improving the overall understanding of the medical issue and accordingly define the treatment procedure. Various forms of active and reactive assertive skills and listening skills are effective for use in the real life scenario which makes it critical for the healthcare professionals to acquire these skills at a very early stage in the careers. Failing to establish points and to assert is a major gap in communication and leads to miscommunication and hence it is extremely important to be able to implement it (Dos & Demir, 2013). The key competencies which are required to be able to become assertive is to become a better communicator in group, being able to speak with strangers and address teams perfectly, becoming straightforward and learning to use different communication model effectively. Becoming interactive, being open to criticism and ideas are extremely important for an individual. Being generous, friendly and professional are some of the key behaviors and interpersonal traits which are extremely important to be reflected to improve communication as a whole. In the Interactive model of communication keen listening is important to make sure the best possible response is given to the receiver and that has to be assertive in nature. The problem that mostly arises in conversation is conversation doesn’t always follow the same rules which might affect the conversation. From the point of view of professional communication, listening is important and being assertive in conversation is also important as it helps to respond clearly and make sense. Overall it is important to note that critically analysing the aspects of listening and assertive communication it could be said that both are complementary to each other and develop the communication of professionals effectively (Littlejohn & Foss, 2010).
Conclusion: Action Plan
To conclude it is important to note that there are several other components involved in effective communicative practice and all of them are related to each other. Even though I have highlighted only listening skills and assertiveness as my loopholes in communication it will be important for me to make sure the other key aspects are in place for me which would help me to improve my overall professional communication. Effective business communication is the primary requirement for each and every professional especially for those who are into health and social care and hence as an aspiring healthcare professional it is important for me to make sure that the key communication issues identified are properly addressed. Based on my personal communication analysis I have developed a self recommended action plan which is likely to help me improve my business communication.
|
Goals |
Actions |
Assessment |
Target Completion |
Result |
|
Understanding Communication |
Reading theoretical information and undergoing business Communication crash course from CQU. |
Continuous self assessment through communication analysis models and the tutors of the course. Monthly conversation with supervisors |
6 months |
Just started. |
|
Listening skills |
Reading and more and more communication with friends and colleagues and also mock practice at home and university. |
Peer assessment and feedbacks from teachers and friends. Analysis based on their response. |
3 months |
ongoing |
|
Assertiveness |
Undergoing meditation to improve focus and confidence, watching different positive videos on communication and assertion and to improve listening to reduce conflicts. Taking problem solving approach through online videos and secondary information. |
Analysis of the behavior and approach to issues. One on one approach to assessment, feedbacks from team members and supervisor, self appraisal. |
6 months |
Pursuing. |
|
Interpersonal skills |
Following a mentor and understanding the different aspects of interpersonal traits. More communication and working on core competencies like trust, confidence and challenging attitude. |
Feedback from mentor and peer assessment. |
6 months |
Positive. |
References
Arnold, E. C., & Boggs, K. U. (2015). Interpersonal relationships: Professional communication skills for nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Bolton, G. (2010). Reflective practice: Writing and professional development. Sage publications.
Branch, W. T. (2010). The road to professionalism: reflective practice and reflective learning. Patient Education and Counseling, 80(3), 327-332.
Cicco, G. (2009). Online versus in-class courses: Learning-style assessment as an advisement tool. International Journal on E-Learning, 8(2), 161-173.
Coiro, J., Knobel, M., Lankshear, C., & Leu, D. J. (Eds.). (2014). Handbook of research on new literacies. Routledge.
Dos, B., & Demir, S. (2013). The analysis of the blogs created in a blended course through the reflective thinking perspective. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 13(2), 1335-1344.
Govaerts, S., Verbert, K., Duval, E., & Pardo, A. (2012, May). The student activity meter for awareness and self-reflection. In CHI’12 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 869-884). ACM.
Grossman, R. (2009). Structures for facilitating student reflection. College Teaching, 57(1), 15-22.
Halpern, H. (2009). Supervision and the Johari window: a framework for asking questions. Education for Primary Care, 20(1), 10-14.
Kurtz, S., Silverman, J., & Draper, J. (2016). Teaching and learning communication skills in medicine. CRC press.
Littlejohn, S. W., & Foss, K. A. (2010). Theories of human communication. Waveland press.
Neuendorf, K. A. (2016). The content analysis guidebook. Sage publications.
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