Effective communication is crucial for the performance quality in the majority of professions. In nursing and healthcare in general, the interaction between healthcare professionals, patients, and other individuals is an essential part of everyday operations. Thus, if people who work in this environment fail to recognize the importance of making communication meaningful and understandable, various conflicts and misunderstandings may occur. The following example of a conversation in the healthcare environment is analyzed to show how ineffective communication may lead to a number of issues.
Ineffective Communication
In my experience, one case may be considered a rather serious one as it involved multiple persons, including healthcare workers of different levels. At one point in time, I was working with a physician who was behaving rudely towards the majority of nurses. In particular, he dismissed the opinions of healthcare professionals who worked as nurses and assistants and often commented on their lack of “proper education” to handle some problems. Some of these interactions escalated and became conflict situations, in which nurses expressed their wish to stop working with this physician. My individual experience also involved a similar case when I attempted to offer my advice regarding a patient. My comment was dismissed in a hostile manner, and the physician said that I had no authority to suggest anything to him because of my position. I did not know how to react to his answer, so I did not say anything and quietly ended the conversation by excusing myself and walking out of the room.
Barriers and Challenges
This particular example shows that obstacles and challenges to communication often involve status and occupation differences. It is possible that the physician considered himself to be more authoritative than the rest of the employees (Manojlovich et al., 2015). Thus, he perceived his judgments to be more important than those of others as well. In this case, power and authority become the main barriers that have to be overcome by nurses in order to achieve effective communication (Marquis & Huston, 2017). Other challenges may include the physician’s personality and prejudices. His opinion regarding nurses undoubtedly affected the described situation, and the physician based his response on his personal beliefs, disregarding the actual information contained in my comment. Thus, the correctness of my suggestion did not matter in this example as significantly as my occupation.
Strategies for Effective Communication
The described situation could be resolved through a number of approaches. First of all, it is necessary to understand that this interaction was ineffective not because the shared information was misunderstood but because it was dismissed (Dima, Teodorescu, & Gifu, 2014). Therefore, clarity and coherence of one’s phrasing may not be enough to improve the situation because the receiver did not interpret the message of the interaction in any way (Dima et al., 2014). Moreover, strategies offered by Johansson, Miller, and Hamrin (2014) such as feedback and involvement may also be unsuccessful here. To improve such conversations, one can attempt to educate the receiver of the information about his/her personal biases. In this case, it could be pointed out that the physician did not engage in active listening (Marquis & Huston, 2017). It is possible that his behavior could change if he were convinced to listen to the nurses’ opinions.
Conclusion
The barrier of power and authority can seriously affect the cooperation among healthcare professionals. The discussed example shows how physicians may contribute to ineffective communication by having personal biases, while nurses may do the same by failing to address arising issues. It is necessary to educate all workers about the need to overcome status prejudices in order to engage them in active listening. A more connective approach based on mutual respect is crucial for effective communication.
References
Dima, I. C., Teodorescu, M., & Gifu, D. (2014). New communication approaches vs. traditional communication. International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, 31, 46-55.
Johansson, C., Miller, V. D., & Hamrin, S. (2014). Conceptualizing communicative leadership: A framework for analysing and developing leaders’ communication competence. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 19(2), 147-165.
Manojlovich, M., Harrod, M., Holtz, B., Hofer, T., Kuhn, L., & Krein, S. L. (2015). The use of multiple qualitative methods to characterize communication events between physicians and nurses. Health Communication, 30(1), 61-69.
Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2017). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application (9th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.