University Health and Social Care ASS072-1: Role Play and Reflection

This assignment presents a role-play scenario between a doctor and a patient experiencing chest pain and breathing issues, followed by a reflective essay. The role play involves a 62-year-old patient, Jane, and the doctor, who assesses her condition, asks about her medical history, and recommends tests. The reflective essay analyzes the communication between the doctor and patient, focusing on the doctor's empathy, communication skills, and professional conduct, using the Gibbs reflective cycle. The essay highlights strengths and weaknesses in the interaction, such as the doctor's positive approach and the omission of self-introduction, and discusses the importance of effective communication in healthcare. It concludes with an action plan for improving communication skills and adhering to healthcare professional codes of conduct.

Running head: HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Role Play
The patient is having chest pain and some breathing issues and she has come to the cardiology expert
doctor for resolving the issue. Jane is a 62 year old lady and from Spanish origin and she can speak in
English and understand basic English.
Doctor: Hello! What is your name and what is your age?
(with a positive approach)
Patient: Hello! I am Jane. I am 62 years old.
(Somewhat anxious)
Doctor: Okay. What kind of problem are you facing?
(Asking with concern)
Patient: I am facing an issue regarding my chest pain and the breathing issues. However, I have been
working out daily sometimes before and also maintained my healthy living style.
(Concerned and anxious)
Doctor: Tell me when it started and how much pain at a time you have experienced? Please also tell me
the specific area you have experienced the pain generally?
(Asking with professional way and with positive tone)
Patient: The pain is very much discomforting and I can feel it in the lower part of the chest. When it starts
I cannot do anything and feel higher amount of agony so that I need to rest for some times and the pain
goes away.
(Very much anxious)
Doctor: Okay. Now tell me if the pain comes with the breathing issues or these are separate experiences
for you? Moreover, also tell me have you taken any medicine for the issue?
(Clarifying the condition)
Patient: Yes. When I feel the severe pain I also feel that I cannot breathe properly. It is very much
discomforting and frightening as well for me. Recently the condition got so much worse that I felt like I

2
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
am blacking out and fainting.
(Very much frightened but somewhat positive about the response of the doctor)
Doctor: Okay. I think you have some infection in your lungs or your lungs are not functioning properly.
In order to clarify the condition I recommend some tests including the X ray of the chest and some blood
tests for the identification of any kind of infection in the blood. However, I need to know about your
medical history and the family medical history as well. Please share these with me so that I can
understand the origin of the issue.
(Using professional and empathetic tone)
Patient: So, you are saying I am having some kinds of bronchitis issue? Can this be curable? Or I will not
be normal anymore please let me know?
(Again anxious and frightened)
Doctor: I cannot specify the condition as per now as I do not have any proof. After the test results come
out I can understand the condition. However, please let me check your vitals first and tell me about the
medical history please!
(Concerned and uncertain)
Patient: Okay. I have not had any kind of issue regarding my health till now. I only have experienced joint
pains from my late 50s. My father died of prostate cancer and mother died of heart attack.
(Sad tone)
Doctor: I am so sorry about your loss. Your heart rate and BP is higher than usual and the breathing rate
is normal as per my assessment. So, please come for check up with the test reports as soon as possible and
I assure you can be cured with proper treatment and I do not think you have any severe condition.
(Positive tone again)
Patient: Okay doctor. I will come with the reports as soon as possible. Thank you for your time.
(Leaving with concern. However, positive than before)

3
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Reflection
The communication between the patient and the doctor or any health care professional
plays a crucial role in terms of obtaining the positive health outcome of the patient. On this
context it can be stated that the health care professional or the doctor should be skilful in the
communication process. Thus, based on the above role play of the doctor, which was played by
me and the patient Jane, which was played by my partner I can reflect that the communication
has helped the patient in understating the issue. The following section would be comprised of the
reflection about the communication of the doctor and the patient.
Jane was a 62 year old patient came for the assessment of her chest pain and I was the
doctor who conversed with the patient about the issues she has been facing. My partner and I was
role playing as the patient and the doctor respectively and we were agreed for this as the course
work and it helped us in getting the idea about the professional works. In the following section I
will be reflecting upon the role play with the help of the Gibb’s reflective cycle (Sekarwinahyu et
al. 2019).
Jane was a patient came to visit the doctor for her condition and the doctor was focusing
on the diagnosis of the patient. In this role play I as a doctor have conversed with the patient in a
positive manner and showed empathy to her. However, I have not introduced myself at the point
when the conversation started. On the other hand I was able to communicate with the patient and
understand her condition. Moreover, the patient has left the doctors chamber with a positive
outlook as well. The doctor here assured her with the positivity and prescribed her the
appropriate diagnostic processes for the identification of the issue properly.
As per the description of the role play I feel that as a doctor I have done a good work in
order to understand the patient, let the patient open up about the issue and also helped her in

4
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
reducing her fear and developing her positivity. However, I have also got concerned about the
condition of the patient and let the negativity come out. Moreover, I have also forgotten to
introduce myself to the patient who breaches the code of conduct of the health care professionals
(Foronda, MacWilliams and McArthur 2016). Hence, based on this role play I have understood
the role myself as a doctor and what should be changed in my area of work as well.
Based on the feelings about the role play I can evaluate the issues and the strengths of the
conversation. On this context I can find out that I have lacked the professional duty as I have not
introduced myself to the patient. Moreover, I have not been able to maintain my composure and
let my anxiety out in front of the patient which could have affected the patient as well. However,
the conversation was good and I was able to understand the patient’s concern and helped her in
positivity development and reduced her fear as well (D’Agostino et al. 2017). My
communication skills helped me in this process of the diagnosis of the patient.
On this context of the role play and the reflection it can be analysed that I have used a
proper communication skill in the process of the conversation with the patient. In this process of
the conversation I have used a range of communication skills such as the positive tone of voice,
empathy showing and active listening. However, I have lacked the composure sometimes and got
tensed as well. Hence, I should work on the effective communication build up processes and try
to ignore my own emotions so that the patient cannot get affected. Other than this I should also
focus on the code of conducts of health care and try to reduce the negative aspects such as
forgetting about the importance of introduction (Kaplonyi et al. 2017). Hence, based on the role
play and the reflection I can state that the process of the communication should be more effective
if I can improve all the lacks the identified by this process.

5
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Based on the reflection it can be concluded that the communication with a patient should
be more transparent and also the doctor should be focused on the well being of the patient.
Hence, the positive communication is required in a priority basis. In the scenario I have used all
the positive communication skills and the conversation helped the patient and me as the doctor in
understating the condition properly. However, as a doctor I have lacked some effective
professional factors which should be rectified and improved as well. Thus, the reflection and role
play helped me in understating my strengths and weaknesses properly.
Based on the above mentioned factor it can be identified that I lack the knowledge of the
code of conducts of the health care professionals and also lack the composure or some
communication skills. Hence, I need to learn all these factors and for learning I should
implement some action plan. The action plan will be included with literature review about the
communication skills and the effective way to reduce errors (MacLean et al. 2017). Moreover, I
need to follow my seniors and the professional doctors as well so that I can learn from them as
well. Other than these I should try to build self efficacy in the process of the communication by
practising conversations like the earlier one with my partner so that we both can improve (Moore
et al. 2018).

6
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Reflection
D’Agostino, T.A., Atkinson, T.M., Latella, L.E., Rogers, M., Morrissey, D., DeRosa, A.P. and
Parker, P.A., 2017. Promoting patient participation in healthcare interactions through
communication skills training: a systematic review. Patient education and counseling, 100(7),
pp.1247-1257.
Foronda, C., MacWilliams, B. and McArthur, E., 2016. Interprofessional communication in
healthcare: An integrative review. Nurse education in practice, 19, pp.36-40.
Kaplonyi, J., Bowles, K.A., Nestel, D., Kiegaldie, D., Maloney, S. and Haines, T., 2017. medical
education in review Understanding the impact of simulated patients on health care learners’
communication skills: a systematic review.
MacLean, S., Kelly, M., Geddes, F. and Della, P., 2017. Use of simulated patients to develop
communication skills in nursing education: An integrative review. Nurse education today, 48,
pp.90-98.
Moore, P.M., Rivera, S., Bravo‐Soto, G.A., Olivares, C. and Lawrie, T.A., 2018. Communication
skills training for healthcare professionals working with people who have cancer. Cochrane
Database of Systematic Reviews, (7).
Sekarwinahyu, M., Rustaman, N.Y., Widodo, A. and Riandi, R., 2019, February. Development
of problem based learning for online tutorial program in plant development using Gibbs’
reflective cycle and e-portfolio to enhance reflective thinking skills. In Journal of Physics:
Conference Series (Vol. 1157, No. 2, p. 022099). IOP Publishing.