Communication Skills for Interview

RUNNING HEAD: COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR INTERVIEW
COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR INTERVIEW
Name of Student
Name of University
Author note

COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR INTERVIEW1
Before visiting Ms Mei Lin’s house and conducting the interview, I went through the
discharge plan and patient history. On visiting Ms Lin’s house, I used observation technique
(Van et al. 2016.) to assess the subject’s environment for safety at home. Just before
conducting the interview, I introduced myself to the patient saying:
“My name is [Name] [Surname] and I am a student nurse posted at community health
service. I am here to know how are you feeling having given birth to your first child?” My
behavior was cordial towards the subject.
Interview Questions and Answers
1. I asked Ms Linn her full name, patient ID and her date of birth, to which she verified
herself correctly.
2. Ms Lin How did the entire experience go for you? Were the attending
nurses, midwives and physicians attentive to your discomforts before,
during or after the operation?
Ms Lin’s reply – “The experience was awakening indeed. I feel weak though. The doctors
and nurses were kind to me. Just the surgeon was indifferent to my respiratory discomfort and
I told him twice to do something, the nurses responded but he did not.”
“How was the overall hospital care? Good or bad?” I asked
“Good. I must say. I was treated well and my baby was born fine.”
“How are you feeling now?”
“Fine but sleepy.”
Ms Lin looked a bit abstracted in the beginning for the way she kept looking at her sofa.
Soon, she managed to wind herself back into the theme of the conversation. She told me that

COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR INTERVIEW2
the midwives were all very receptive to her discomfort and anxieties regarding the whole
surgical procedure. Most of the attending doctors were kind to her except for the surgeon who
did not respond to her ‘feeling of light headedness, confusion and chaos’ in the perioperative
stage. Overall, the experience is “emotionally arousing” for her because in her words, she
was consumed by a ‘jarring happiness and wonder” when she saw the little life coming out of
her. While answering this question – Ms Lin was enthusiastic, lively almost to the verge of
ecstatic about the birth of the child.
3. How is the baby doing and how have you been able to look after yourself
and your baby at home?
Ms Lin’s reply – ‘I am really thankful to my mother for dropping by here. I would have been
completely helpless without her but she will be leaving in a week. She has been a great help
though.”
“Would you be fine without her? You have anybody else to look after the baby?’ I asked.
‘I don’t know actually. No, I can have a babysitter or a nurse or someone like that’ she
replied.
Ms Lin looked affectionately at the baby’s cradle. To my observation, her face showed signs
of distress and hidden anxieties as she explored on the child care at her home and her social
isolation. Anxiety is common in postpartum cases (Okun 2018).
4. How have you been feeling physically and mentally after you have
returned home?
Ms Lin –“I feel relatively okay after coming back. I feel ‘pins and needles’ around her
lumbar area and in her feet as well. Other than that, I feel drowsy but the ‘sounds’ coming
from the cradle makes me tranquil and happy. My partner left me lonely and hopeless but I
went through with the childbirth experience very well.”