Overcoming Communication Challenges in Healthcare

The assignment focuses on the importance of clear communication in healthcare settings. It details a personal experience encountering communication difficulties and outlines the steps taken to overcome them. The author highlights effective communication strategies employed, including understanding individual preferences and fostering open interactions with team members, particularly doctors.

REFLECTION
(NURSING)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
WEEK 2...........................................................................................................................................1
Situation:.................................................................................................................................1
Action:....................................................................................................................................1
Outcome:................................................................................................................................1
WEEK 4...........................................................................................................................................1
Situation: ................................................................................................................................1
Action: ...................................................................................................................................1
Outcome:................................................................................................................................2
WEEK 10.........................................................................................................................................2
Situation:.................................................................................................................................2
Action:....................................................................................................................................2
Outcome:................................................................................................................................2
WEEK 11.........................................................................................................................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

WEEK 2
Situation:
During this session in first case, the patient was warm to touch and pulse rate in both legs
was weak. Capillary refill time was found to be good in hands but in lower legs. In second case,
the patient is suffering from severe chest pain and is placed on cardiac monitor.
Action:
I was performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the patient. It was directed to
provide 30 cardiac compression in duration of two breaths. There is need of continuous delivery
of cardiac compression when the heart rate is 100 beats per minutes (Vadeboncoeur et.al., 2014).
This procedure was performed by me to restore the patient’s blood circulation and breathing at
normal rates.
Outcome:
Through this session, I came to learn about the importance of effective communication in
the working place while performing the emergency procedures like CPR. It also helps in
enhancing the decision making procedure (Lewis, Stubbs, & Eisenberg, 2013). Through this, I
also came to know about my decision making strength in emergency situations. I observed that I
was quick in making the decisions in emergency situations.
WEEK 4
Situation:
In case of first patient who was suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease,
the primary assessment indicated that his breathing was rapid and shallow. Along with this, he is
centrally cyanosis and is severely breathlessness. Similarly, in the second case a woman was
suffering from pneumonia and on the primary assessment using ABCDEFG approach I found
that she was also breathless chronic cough that make her unwell.
Action:
I provided the patients with intravenous medications. In first case, I had to provide patient
with intravenous antibiotic ceftriaxone and in second patient with intravenous medicine
ampicillin. According to fluid order chart ceftriaxone first dissolved in water for making
injection (Hurdman et.al., 2013). Then I administered it for 2-5 minutes, directly into the vein of
patient.
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Outcome:
Through this practice, I learned how to properly mix the vials to make injections. Also, I
came to know that antibiotic powder can be mixed with water and can be provided to patients
with normal saline. According to fluid order chart, saline solution can consist of NS, 3% saline
and 0.9% NaCl (Deierhoi, Dawes, Vick, Itani & Hawn, 2013).
WEEK 10
Situation:
After performing the primary assessment by ABCDEFG approach in first case, the
patient had low amount of haemoglobin and is facing problem like fatigue. Similarly, in the
second case after performing the primary assessment I came to results that patients is suffering
from tachypnoea, week pulse rate and tachycardia.
Action:
In this particular week I was assigned to provide patients with intravenous potassium
along with checking the 3 drugs check and 2 patients check. It is necessary to first refer the
potassium policy for administrating the right amount of drug in patient (Weiss, Casaburi,
Flannery, LeRoux-Williams & Tashkin, 2013). Along with this I have to provide this intravenous
potassium with normal saline to patients.
Outcome:
From this session I gain knowledge regarding the proper administration of potassium
intravenously their respective policies. Also, I learnt how to mix the potassium with specific
saline concentration to make injections. I also came to know about ISBAR format process to
form the report to share patient’s information with other students. It is important to share the
information regarding patients by using ISBAR tool (Di Delupis, Mancini, Di Nota & Pisanelli,
2015).
WEEK 11
1. Description: While, performing the clinical practices during clinical placement I had an
interaction with multi-disciplinary team. This team consists of many professional
physicians, therapist and doctors. There are certain set of issues that are faced by me like
communication and delay in conveying information to whole team.
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2. Feeling: I was feeling quite uncomfortable while working with this team. As I was only a
normal nursing student but they are real life working professional in their respective
fields. Also, the level of knowledge was too high among them.
3. Evaluation: The experience with working such a professional was amazing. However, it
was difficult for me to have proper communication with them. I failed in explaining the
medical condition of patients or any other information that were passed on to me by other
professional. Further, I faced problem in interacting with doctor as he was senior to me so
I had hesitation to interact. Apart from this, I took lot of time to conveying the
information about the patient and this delayed to treatment time that has to be provided to
patients.
4. Analysis: From this session I analysed the importance of interaction with the patients and
their families during the time of treating illness. As in some cases, patient dealing with
long term diseases becomes frustrated and tries to give up their life. This practice of
effective interaction with patient and families helped me to make patients realize about
the importance of their life and motivate their families.
5. Conclusion: From this placement I came to conclusion that effective use of assessment
tools like admission assessment, shift assessment and focussed assessment tool by
registered nurses and general practitioners can help in providing the effective nursing
care. In admission assessment, I learned about steps that should be taken when patient is
initially brought to ward for treatment. I should possess knowledge regarding patient
history and performing physical examination along with certain vital tests.
6. Action Plan: In order overcome the issues faced by me, I evaluated my performance and
made use of effective communication strategies to solve the issue. I tried to understand
the way that is preferable and understandable by each of the member. This way, each one
of them was able to understand me and the information provided to them. I interacted
personally with each of the member, especially doctor so that I can overcome my fear and
hesitation. This way, I was able to overcome the problems faced by me in effective
manner.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Deierhoi, R. J., Dawes, L. G., Vick, C., Itani, K. M., & Hawn, M. T. (2013). Choice of
intravenous antibiotic prophylaxis for colorectal surgery does matter. Journal of the
American College of Surgeons, 217(5), 763-769.
Di Delupis, F. D., Mancini, N., Di Nota, T., & Pisanelli, P. (2015). Pre-hospital/emergency
department handover in Italy. Internal and emergency medicine, 10(1), 63-72.
Garling, S., Hunt, J., Smith, D., & Sanders, W. (2013). Contested governance: culture, power
and institutions in Indigenous Australia (p. 351). ANU Press.
Hurdman, J., Condliffe, R., Elliot, C. A., Swift, A., Rajaram, S., Davies, C., ... & Pollard, L.
(2013). Pulmonary hypertension in COPD: results from the ASPIRE registry. European
Respiratory Journal, 41(6), 1292-1301.
Lewis, M., Stubbs, B. A., & Eisenberg, M. S. (2013). Dispatcher-assisted CPR: time to identify
cardiac arrest and deliver chest compression instructions. Circulation,
CIRCULATIONAHA-113.
Vadeboncoeur, T., Stolz, U., Panchal, A., Silver, A., Venuti, M., Tobin, J., ... & Bobrow, B.
(2014). Chest compression depth and survival in out-of-hospital cardiac
arrest. Resuscitation, 85(2), 182-188.
Weiss, D. J., Casaburi, R., Flannery, R., LeRoux-Williams, M., & Tashkin, D. P. (2013). A
placebo-controlled, randomized trial of mesenchymal stem cells in COPD. CHEST
Journal, 143(6), 1590-1598.
Online
Australian Nursing & Midwifery Accreditation Council. (2016). [Online]. Available through
<https://www.anmac.org.au/>. [Accessed on 20th September 2017].
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