Effective Communication in Healthcare

This assignment delves into the crucial role of effective communication in healthcare, specifically within the nursing profession. It examines various aspects of communication skills relevant to nurses, including techniques for successful patient-clinician interactions and methods to address challenges posed by language barriers. The analysis draws upon research studies that highlight best practices and strategies for enhancing communication effectiveness in diverse healthcare settings.

Running Head: EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Effective Business Communication
Name of the Student
Name of the University

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Diagnosis and Reflection.............................................................................................................2
3. Literature Review........................................................................................................................6
4. Action Plan................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................16

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1. Introduction
In order to exchange various ideas and thoughts between the two more individuals, some
modes of communications are generally applied. While verbal exchange is the most common
mode of communication, there are other communication methods as well like written
communication, presentation and others. In addition to idea exchange, communication can also
be used for several other purposes that include business interactions, learning processes,
diagnostic therapy and others. Of all these uses, the one discussed in this particular assignment is
diagnostic therapy using communication tools. Some of the communication tools discussed
include questionnaires, interviews, Johari window and others. All these communications tools
have been found to be effective for diagnostic therapy of individuals and children who require
communication support for development or therapy.
In this particular assignment, the application of communication tools in the diagnosis and
therapy of mental patients and children have been analyzed and discussed.
2. Diagnosis and Reflection
There are certain communication tools that have been effectively used by therapists for
aiding the mental patients as well as the children who require certain amount of attention for
personal development. Some of these tools are discussed as follows.
Johari Window: It is a “diagnostic communication tool” introduced by Harrington
Ingham and Joseph Luft and thus, it was named as ‘Johari’. It has been generally practiced for
the individuals who realized that improvement or backup is needed in their relationship with
others. This technique of diagnostic includes four quadrants including Façade, Arena, Unknown

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and Blind Spot enlisting the adjectives those need to be considered while having a
communication or not having a communication. After enlisting, the most considerable adjectives
will be chosen that will describe the therapy objective of the individual. From different sets of
the adjectives, the participant and his or her peers will be selecting the adjectives. The identified
adjectives will be filled in the quadrants as per the priority after the completion of the selection
process. After making the arrangement of the adjectives, the subject will be able to learn about
the chosen adjectives based on his or her peers and thus they would be able to realize the
different perspective of their own thinking that was not up to the mark for themselves. Thus, it
can be described as a self-realization therapy that is applicable for the individuals with mental
health problem and who are not able to recognize themselves and about their character. It is also
applicable for the children in manner to enhance their self-confidence and enhance their moral
through recognizing them about their character and behavior.
Assertive Interviews: It is other diagnostic communication tool, which is applied to the
individuals who are not able to express their feelings and thoughts in open manner. It is a crucial
objective that these individuals need strong pressure or assertion in manner to express their
feelings and expressions in frank manner. Very easy manners of interview can be an effective
way for interviewing these individuals such as questionnaire or oral interview for getting respond
of the individuals on his or her point of perspective. It is a method of getting respond of the
individuals on the topic through asking assertive questions related to him or her and this question
and answers would be a helpful measure for the therapy. Present situation of the individual is a
concerning factor while discovering the questions and assertiveness level of those questions.
Generally, this technique is used in the interrogation process where strong assertion is used to
make the criminals talk about the scenes.

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Talking Therapy: Similar to above this is another “diagnostic tool” that is applicable for
everyone and it can be used as a therapy to make people talk even in the domestic environment.
It is a simple questioning technique with the intention of making people talk to the therapist. It
can be described as counseling where therapist make the participant talk and provide them
opportunity to express the issues being faced by them in the real world.
Communication Style Questionnaire: It is a communication tool that is used for
diagnosing the people about their own personality through questioning a series of the questions
in the form of the questionnaire. Therapy will be executed according to the answers provided by
the participant and considering the cases of the answers provided by the participant. These
answers will be helpful for the therapist in evaluating and analyzing the mental condition of the
individual. The questionnaires involved in the questionnaire could be either aggressive or
passive. The aggressive question will be digging out the desires of the individual whereas, the
passive question will be helpful in collecting the general information.
Strength Cards: this therapy is in general applicable for the children in manner to
identify the mental and personal growth of them and contribute in the development of their
personal character. Cards have been selected on which strengths has been indicated on each card
and the pictorial presentation will be provided on the basis of animals. Tutors and parents of the
children have been assigned with the cards and children are asked to collect the card and thus
determine the strength of the child. If the strength has been identified quickly, the executives
would be able to perform much better activities in manner to enhance the personality of the
child.

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The methods, tools, and therapy mentioned in the above paragraphs are capable of
enhancing the personal traits and behavior of the individuals however, there are certain
drawbacks and issues related with these therapies that are capable of affecting the efficiency of
these therapies. Following are the two issues that could be a communication barrier in these
therapy:
Language Barrier: Language could one of the biggest obstacle in the path of the
successful execution of these personality therapies. There are the possibilities and many cases in
which the individual and the therapist would not be able to share the views and recommendation
about the therapy if there is any language barrier between the therapist and the subject. Another
obstacle is the people living in the rural areas where the individuals might not have successful
English practices that could be hardest moment for the execution of the therapy with those
individuals. The only solution for this issue is using a single language that could be understood
by everyone and thus execute the opted adjectives of the therapy. Translation software could be
another option for this problem and could be an effective way to translate between the participant
and the therapist.
Unwillingness to Cooperate: Some of the individuals might not feel free or try to
communicate with the therapist that could lead to less understanding on the subject and thus
further action could not be executed in an effective manner. There are many situations in which
an individual might not try to be free to explain his or her feelings and thus the therapist would
not be able to understand the subject wholly. The solution of this problem is to make good
relationship with the subject and use very simple language with the subject. Starting with
personal questions and general information through eye contacting could be a possible measure

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of the problem. This situation could be helpful in ensuring the proper therapy for eliminating the
problems and barriers.
3. Literature Review
Dolan (2017) in his works stated that communication therapy is easier to apply when the
subject cooperates with the therapist and willingly seeks the help of communication therapy. For
this purpose, there are several communication techniques available including Johari window,
assertive interviews and others that aim to help the subjects in rediscovering their own characters
and gain confidence to overcome mental problems. Some of the diagnostic tools have also been
effectively applied on subjects who are under drug abuse or emotional problems. On the other
hand, diagnostic tools like strength cards are effectively used by various kindergarten and lower
schools for the personal development of the children.
However, Bramhall (2014) said that for certain subjects who are not willing to respond to
the therapy process, application of the diagnostic tool is much more difficult. It requires months
of conviction and assertion to finally open up the subject who will then share the problems and
challenges faced by them mentally and emotionally. For these subjects, regular communication
modes do not work even though their peers and the therapists try to convince them to share
views and problems. For this particular problem, Heinrich et al. (2016) suggested the use of
assertive type interviews that uses application of certain amount of pressure through the use and
choice of questions. With the application of assertion, the subject may start to feel vulnerable and
finally cooperate with the therapist. Bahadori, Shiri & Mahdizade (2015) suggested the
application of interactive softwares for the purpose of convincing the subject in opening up to the
therapist. In this process, there is no verbal interaction between the therapist and the subject.

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Using the interactive software, the therapist enters some questions with some choices of answers
(generally three to four) and the subject is required to enter the interactive session at a certain
time. During this session, the software displays the list of questions and their answerable options
to the subjects. Berland and Berland (2017) argued that this process will be much easier since
most people are vulnerable to interaction in virtual media than face to face communication.
Thomson et al. (2015) stated that effective communication is the communication process
that requires the application of a proper technique that is needed by both the communicator as
well as the reader. There are certain attributes in the communication process which requires to be
fulfilled for the purpose of exchanging the ideas between the participants that requires to be
successful. This attributes generally includes the language, assertion, nature of idea
communicated and many more. According to the author there is no effective communication
unless and until the attributes are satisfied. According to Sonntag et al. (2016), the most
important part of the effective communication is not language. There is a need of doing the
communication process in the same language so as to make the language understandable by both
the communicator who are involved in the intermediate medium which will be helping in the
communication of ideas and translating in a language which will be understandable by the
recipient.
The work of Delerue and Sicotte (2017) helps in understanding the fact that
communication helps in providing a large number of benefits in rather than just exchanging of
the ideas. The primary requirement of the communication is to send idea from one person to
another but despite of this a great role is played by the mode of communication or the choice of
word that plays a vital role in gaining the benefits or the damage to an individual. This is the
main reason which lies behind the usage of proper communication as a mode of therapy for those

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subjects which generally requires a special attention or care. Communication is also used as an
aid for the learning process of the children’s as it will be helping them in understand the general
ideas as well as the help them grow and develop in a natural way. According to Drake and Ring
(2016), the process of communication is generally used widely as a diagnostic tool for various
type of counselling procedures which consists of the participation of subjects in order to receive
a solution for the mental problems.
McCabe and Timmins(2013) stated that the techniques of communication might
contradict at a certain state of time during the process of listening to others as same situation
might be faced during individual listening to others who are having a conversation about the
similar topic. There are also some other possibilities which includes the individual listening to
others and keeps the matter to himself without considering the erpressive views on any personal
experiences. This might be due to the fact that he/she might not feel it proper to hurt the
individual talking to them by means of crosstalk or there might be a feeling of avoiding the
conflict by hiding the feelings or it might be a situation when the individual is feeling upset. This
situation can be put in the category of communication errors which can make the individuals feel
guilty because of such mistakes. There is also some situation when it has been seen that the
individuals feel guilty without even noticing if they are actually guilty or not. Price et al. (2015)
explained the various consequences of such communication which is it will be taking a toll and
along with this type of miscommunication can lead to pain, frustration and resentment. There are
several ways in which each and every facet of the life can be improved in an effective as well as
easy manner in cases if the individuals are not having any kind of relational issues. Some of the
better and beneficial aspects for every individual to have proper communication by means of

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proper learnings are “improvement in the relationships”, “landing better jobs”, “feeling much
understandable” and many more.
The assertiveness can be used for the purpose of explaining the balance that exists
between the aggressive communication and the passive communication as there is an essential
need of understanding the needs of an individual. Along with this there is also a need of
advocating by the individuals so as to meet the needs. When and individual listens to someone
else or acknowledge their statement or respect the feeling and statement of other individuals
expressing that individuals own feelings, then it can be termed as compromise (Tran 2016).
There are three different ways of expressing a single statement or sentence and this mainly
includes the aggressive, passive and assertive. This can happen by making use of different tones.
Some of the situation where the individual needs to express their life span are Basic thought,
Body language, language style, and the consequences. All these thoughts and the statements can
be delivered in all the mentioned styles if any situation is expressed in a different form of life
style. By the process of better learning and practices about such techniques and objectives can
turn to be an effective measure for the individual so as to communicate and expressing the
feelings of the real world.
Some of the effective communication that helps the individuals in communicating and
expressing their feelings in the real world was provided by Saxena in the year of 2015. This was
done because of the fact that these problems can lead to several type of stress as well as many
other problems. There is a need of effective communication inside a family as these acts as
“preventive maintenance, reassuring family members that they care about each other and
appreciate each other's efforts.” Communication can get affected by the co-occurring which will
be making it easier to bring up the requests whenever needed along with bringing up the issues

10EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
which can lead to conflicts and along with this the resolving of this issues. Co-occurring
disorders can affect the communication that exists between the family members in several ways
and this might include taking of extra or additional efforts for the individuals so as to make
aware every individual about their respective role in the respective sectors. Many situations are
there where it can be seen that the individuals in a family are feeling resisted due to talk and they
might feel depressed or might feel angry or irritated during a discussion on a topic.
Taylor and Hamdy in the year of 2013 explained all the problems that will be raised due
to the errors in communication that exists between the family members and this could be easily
magnified. This could lead to various other problems as well. Examples like interaction, adition
related, and substances are capable of affecting the communication. The things that are included
in the better communication are talking to the point, expression of the feelings with different
statements, with “I” designated in a proper way so as to make sure that the he sentences are easy
to understand by listening to the individual topics. When speaking for the individual himself
than despite of talking for the others can act as an another method for measuring for a better
communication and leading a better life. According to Tong (2014) that focusing on the traits
rather than emphasizing on the behaviour can act as another important factor for the purpose of
enhancement of the communication skills in such a manner that the conflicts get eliminated.
Along with this there is also a need of need of making the individuals understand about the
various facts that the individual is trying to make it understandable to the listener. There are also
certain facts that are helpful for the individuals to express their feelings along with making the
fact understandable.
As per the works of authors Bramhall (2014), the therapy process is aided by the
willingness of the subjects to cooperate with the therapist as well as try to build confidence for

11EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
getting over the mental stress. The authors have discussed about the verbal communications and
interviews that are widely used by therapists to try to learn about the problems faced by the
subjects so that they can recommend suitable solution for the same. They have also stated the use
of uncommon communication tools like strength cards and Johari window that generally helps
the mental development and growth of the children. The authors have also discussed the
possibility of implementing the communication tools for the therapy of other types of subjects
like those under domestic or drug abuse.
Arnold and Boggs (2015) have explored possible methods that can be applied for the
subjects who do not cooperate with the therapists during the counseling session. The authors
have explained that these types of subjects are the most hard to cure and ordinary communication
tools are not applicable on these subjects. This condition of the subjects is generally due to
extreme stress or even intense drug or domestic abuse that has also invoked a sense of guilt
among the subjects. Hence, the authors have recommended a careful approach towards the
communication therapy process. They have recommended the use of virtual media sessions in
order to deal with these subjects meaning face to face communication will not be involved for
the session. In this session, the subject will need to access the computer and take part in the
therapy sessions where he will only have to answer some questions provided to him. The authors
have also explored the possibility of using assertions during the interview process of these
subjects where the questions will be made such that the subjects are almost forced to speak the
truth. In certain cases, the therapists can take the help of the peers of the subjects in order to
know more about the subject. Johari window is another alternative where the subject will be able
to recognize his own characters that were previously not known to him but his peers did. The

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Johari window will only undertake the process of self discovery of the subjects through the use
of adjectives in various quadrants of the window.
Austin and Pinkleton (2015) explored the application of the tool for the mental
development and growth of children especially those who require special attention from their
tutors. The communications tools like strength cards, tarot cards and others can be used for their
development as a part of their learning process. These students require communication therapy in
order to grow confidence and learn to accept challenges in their learning course. Again, the
authors have also discussed the use of communication tools for the development of non-verbal
and other specially abled children. Often these children find it hard to cope with their
surroundings and special care is needed to rebuild their confidence. This is possible by using
certain communication tools that help to develop them in spite of the challenges faced by them.
4. Action Plan
In order to develop an action plan for the course of next six months, the following
schedule has been prepared.
Task Name Duration Start Finish
Action Plan for Learning Process 180 days Mon 05-02-18 Fri 12-10-18
Study Initiation 24 days Mon 05-02-18 Thu 08-03-18
Analysis of Requirements of Study 4 days Mon 05-02-18 Thu 08-02-18
Topic Approval 4 days Fri 09-02-18 Wed 14-02-18

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Planning for the Study 4 days Thu 15-02-18 Tue 20-02-18
Framework for Research and
Study
6 days Wed 21-02-18 Wed 28-02-18
Final Study Plan 6 days Thu 01-03-18 Thu 08-03-18
Project Planning 40 days Fri 09-03-18 Thu 03-05-18
Team Member Selection 10 days Fri 09-03-18 Thu 22-03-18
Allocation of duties 4 days Fri 23-03-18 Wed 28-03-18
Finding Research Questions 4 days Thu 29-03-18 Tue 03-04-18
Define Scope 4 days Wed 04-04-18 Mon 09-04-18
Time Scheduling 4 days Tue 10-04-18 Fri 13-04-18
Resource and Time Allocation 10 days Mon 16-04-18 Fri 27-04-18
Initiation of Study 4 days Mon 30-04-18 Thu 03-05-18
Study Development 76 days Fri 04-05-18 Fri 17-08-18
Finding Research Problems 10 days Fri 04-05-18 Thu 17-05-18
Getting Access to Internet 6 days Fri 18-05-18 Fri 25-05-18
Getting Access to Online Sources 6 days Fri 18-05-18 Fri 25-05-18
Finding suitable sources for 10 days Mon 28-05-18 Fri 08-06-18

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analysis and study
Literature Survey 4 days Mon 11-06-18 Thu 14-06-18
Data Collection 30 days Fri 15-06-18 Thu 26-07-18
Secondary Data Collection 16 days Fri 27-07-18 Fri 17-08-18
Data Analysis 10 days Mon 20-08-18 Fri 31-08-18
Analysis of Primary Data 6 days Mon 20-08-18 Mon 27-08-18
Analysis of Secondary Data 4 days Tue 28-08-18 Fri 31-08-18
Research Evaluation 14 days Mon 03-09-18 Thu 20-09-18
Study Review and Evaluation 6 days Mon 03-09-18 Mon 10-09-18
Evaluation on Reflection 4 days Tue 11-09-18 Fri 14-09-18
Studying the learning outcomes 4 days Tue 11-09-18 Fri 14-09-18
Finding issues faced and solving
them
4 days Mon 17-09-18 Thu 20-09-18
Research Closure 16 days Fri 21-09-18 Fri 12-10-18
Final completion 4 days Fri 21-09-18 Wed 26-09-18
Documentation of the study 6 days Thu 27-09-18 Thu 04-10-18
Approval from supervisor 4 days Fri 05-10-18 Wed 10-10-18

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Team Sign Off 2 days Thu 11-10-18 Fri 12-10-18

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