NCOM 1000: Reflective Paper - Improving Communication Skills

This essay is a reflective account of a communication breakdown experienced during a group presentation in a nursing course (NCOM 1000). The author reflects on an incident where a team member's lack of preparation and poor communication led to a less-than-successful presentation. The reflection covers the author's thoughts, feelings, and actions following the event. The author emphasizes the importance of effective communication in nursing practice, highlighting concepts such as active listening, non-verbal communication, and cultural sensitivity. The essay concludes with a discussion of how the experience has informed the author's understanding of teamwork and communication, and how they plan to improve their communication skills for future professional interactions. The author also suggests training sessions to develop communication within a team setup and effective coordination between various team members. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Nursing Assignment
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Introduction:
Communication practice involves physical and social transaction of information that
can be either over lettering, talking or non-verbal ways. The method includes exchange
among individuals or a group of individuals (Silverman, Kurtz& Draper, 2016). In nursing
practice as well as education, communication acts an indispensable part and a better skill in
communication is a principal feature for developing interpersonal relationships and effective
teamwork (MacLean, Kelly, Geddes & Della, 2017). The aim of this assignment is to reflect
upon a recent personal experience that was caused due to inadequate/poor communication,
resulting in a conflict with a classmate.
The Event:
During one of our assessment presentation group work, we had to give presentations
in groups on various topics on which our communication and presentation skills would be
evaluated and the best team would receive a prize. Communication and teamwork was a key
part in this activity, as each team had to decide which member would be presenting what part
of the topic, collaborating research and data and practicing how to maintain continuity in the
presentation while moving from one presenter to another. Communication was crucial for the
presentation to be successful. However, a significant challenge occurred when one of the
members failed to prepare for her part of the presentation and also failed to communicate the
same to the other members, so that someone else could cover for that portion. As a result, the
overall quality of the presentation got hampered, and our group did not get the first prize.
Thoughts:
The entire incident was very disappointing for me as the rest of the team worked very
hard to prepare for the presentation and still the overall performance of the team was affected

2NURSING ASSIGNMENT
due to the failure of a single member. The incident also impressed upon me the importance
each member plays in the performance of the overall team and also upon how important
communication is for the performance of the entire team. I also came to believe from this
experience that every team should make adequate preparations to ensure there is not
breakdown of communication, setting up multiple communication channels and
accountability of each member is important to ensure success of the team.
Feelings:
I was upset on both the team leader as well as the member of the team who failed in
her duties and responsibilities. The member’s failure resulted in the entire team performing
poorly, while the team leader also failed to monitor and identify such a situation before hand
and prevent it from occurring. The event thus also showed the important role a team leader
plays in monitoring and ensuring that every team member is performing the tasks they are
assigned with and taking regular updates on the task. I also felt that effective training in
communication skills is necessary for the team to perform better. I was also worried that in
professional practice, such errors can lead to serious consequences and thus can even
jeopardize our careers.
Actions:
The personal experience truly impressed on me the significance of effective
communication in education as well as healthcare. As nursing students, I believe that the
providence of care to patient is of utmost importance. This usually requires working with a
diverse team of healthcare professionals, as well as the patient and their families or care
givers. Communication is a crucial component that can help a nurse to coordinate the team
effectively, help in the sharing of crucial and clinical information within the team, keeping
the patient and their family updated on care progression. I therefore suggested a training

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session for developing communication within a team setup and how to effectively coordinate
between various team members. I identified few important concepts of communication which
can help to avoid such scenarios in the future:
Concept of communication
The following three concepts of communication can be followed and it can help to
avoiding such situation in future:
Active listening
Active listening is one of the important parts of a better communication. People may
listen to what others are saying, but sometimes they don’t focus on what is actually being said
(Jones, Bodie& Hughes, 2016). This may be because of various other thoughts running in
their mind. It is based on taking conscious decisions in order to listen and under what the
other person wants to convey (Jahromi, Tabatabaee, Abdar & Rajabi, 2016). The active
listening is one major issue that created the situation, as the member failed to remember
important data discussed in the team meetings, related to the presentation, and the situation
could have been averted if the member listened to the meetings actively.
Non-verbal Communication
A non-verbal communication includes conveying message and information without
the use of words and written consents. It is all based on facial expression, body language and
other behavioral signs (Eaves& Leathers, 2017). As per my judgment, non-verbal
communication understanding could have also helped in avoiding the incident. Giving
effective non verbal gestures during the presentation could have helped to avoid the
confusion caused when one of the members was unable to present the topic.
Culture

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In a better communication, culture plays a very vital role and it creates a gap
sometimes. Culture gap and difference does not allow sometimes communicating with each
other as it is a set of values and ethics people hold in their minds (Yoo & Park, 2015). It also
directs people to take other for granted who has different cultural values. And it is a negative
thing in any kind of system (Adler, Rodman & Du Pré, 2016). I believe that a culture of
personal accountability and responsibility is also important for the success of the team, and I
believe that the person did not have the same sense of accountability and responsibility
towards the presentation, due to which she lagged behind others with her part of duties.
Response
Experience this incident helped in knowing me in a better way and me also came to
know about the flaws I need to work on. I need to improve my communication abilities in
order to handle such situations in future or may be avoiding the occurrence of such incidents.
It will also help me and other students to work as a team and in a better coordinated way. If
the challenges or barriers to team work are not addressed, then it can have more serious
consequences in professional practice as it can cause clinical errors and even jeopardise the
health and wellbeing of others in a healthcare context.

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Reference
Adler, R. B., Rodman, G. R., & Du Pré, A. (2016). Understanding human communication
(Vol. 10). Oxford University Press. Retrieved from: https://www.vesalius.edu/wp-
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Jahromi, V. K., Tabatabaee, S. S., Abdar, Z. E., &Rajabi, M. (2016). Active listening: The
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Jones, S. M., Bodie, G. D., & Hughes, S. D. (2016). The impact of mindfulness on empathy,
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