Reflection on Communication in Healthcare: Gibbs Reflective Cycle

Running head: REFLECTION ON COMMUNICATION
REFLECTION ON COMMUNICATION
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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REFLECTION ON COMMUNICATION
Introduction:
Reflective practice is considered as a way of studying one’s own experiences for
improvement in his or her profession. Researchers are of the opinion that the act of reflection
helps in increasing the confidence of the healthcare professionals and thereby makes them
proactive and qualified professionals (Arnold & Boggs, 2015). It can be stated as the procedure
by which healthcare professionals can make sense of the different events as well as situations
and actions in the workplace. It helps in developing the skills and reviewing their effectiveness to
gradually develop expertise and ensure safe and quality care to the patients (Weller, Boyd &
Cumin, 2014). In this assignment, I would be using the Gibbs reflective cycle to reflect on one of
the most important topic of healthcare that is professional communication. I would be mainly
discussing about the experiences that I had during the time of my placement in a healthcare
centre and thereby analyze how this reflection helped me in understanding the main facilitators
and inhibitors of development of effective relationship at workplace.
Description:
During the time of my placement, I had to work with a nurse leader in a group of five
members who like me were also on placements. She allocated us with a task to be completed
within a specific deadline. She called us to her room and allocated the task to each of us, and
asked us to complete our own individual parts. We wanted to come up with our suggestions but
she did not allow us to peak up as she thought it would result in wasting of time. She also
thought that we would make one or the other excuses for the task allocated to us. The next day
we were to go on a visit to the different wards in order to learn about the procedures by which
healthcare professionals conduct intravenous channels for medication administration. While

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REFLECTION ON COMMUNICATION
interacting with one of the patient, I realized that he is quite old and has memory impairment. It
was a very busy shift and having less time to make him understand and remember him the cause
of the injection that was to be pushed, I thought of not making him understand the cause of the
injection administration I thought that the patient would forget anyhow and therefore, it would
lead to wastage of time. Moreover, I am quite an impatient listener and so when another of an
elder patient was discussing her meal plan, I did not provide importance to her words and left the
room instructing a healthcare aid to provide her a non-veg meal free of carbohydrates. It was a
mistake on my part, as I did not hear that she was allergic to lettuce and cabbage. This created
negative outcomes on her health resulting her to suffer more. When I came back to the room, I
saw that none of the nurses who were working in my team wanted to work with the team leader
and complained to the mentor to change their leader. I also got a complaint on my name where
the patient I handled before had complained that I did not take his consent and I did not make
him understand why the injection was given.
Feeling:
Initially I was quite excited as I got the opportunity to work with different members of
the healthcare team and thereby understand how multidisciplinary team works. Moreover, I was
also excited as I could get the scope to interact with patients and treat them in real life situations.
However, the experiences that I had during the first few days of my placements were not as
positive as I had thought. Due to lack of certain aspects of professional nursing and
communication, I failed to provide the safe and quality care to the patients. The patient's
complaint about me to the complaint department made me very embarrassed in front of not only
my mentor as well as my colleagues. Moreover, I was also very depressed, as I could not provide
the best evidence best quality and safe care to the patients, which each of the service users expect