Reflective Diary on Communication Skills

This reflective diary explores the importance of effective communication in healthcare settings, utilizing Gibbs' and Boud's reflective models to analyze personal experiences and enhance skills. It discusses challenges faced during role play and the significance of interpersonal communication in patient care.

Reflective Dairy

Table of Contents
1st September 2015 .........................................................................................................................1
1. Reflection on communicating effectively .........................................................................1
10th September 2015.......................................................................................................................1
2. The role-play and group formation.....................................................................................1
17th September 2015.......................................................................................................................1
3. Evaluation and learning from the role-play........................................................................1
24th September 2015.......................................................................................................................1
4. Personal development.........................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

1st September 2015
INTRODUCTION
In every organisation, open and effective communication process is required to work with
each other in efficient manner. There are various types methods and skills are used at the time of
communicating with others. Basically process of communication is related to exchanging he
information to other person. In addition to this, the term reflective practice is a technique of
assessing the own actions and thoughts with the motive of personal development and learning
(Davies, 2012). With the purpose of reflective practice on communication process, Gibbs model
is used by me.
The Gibbs model is a reflective cycle of reflection. In this researcher Gram Gibbs gives
the focus on the own feelings, perceptions and views. This reflective cycle includes few elements
such as description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan. This is a reflective
report which is based on my own experience in health and social care sector. The aim of this is to
describe the use and importance of communication in this sector.
1. Reflection on communicating effectively
As I was working in care organisation as a healthcare professional. I have selected this
particular incident because I spent lot of time in communicating with particular patient because
that patient was from other country with hearing impaired. At my workplace, all other caring
roles and health assistant were using the English as a first language. Some of them were aware
about other local languages. Still, I remember the name of that patient Daisy who was suffering
from cancer. So at the time of communication with Daisy I was facing the few problems like she
was not aware of English language, second I was not aware of sign languages which she was
using. Its like sign languages also varies from one country to other same like culture and ethics.
On that time we both were not able to interact and communicate with each other. I was not able
to understand her medical issues and she was not able to describe her current health condition.
In this, Gibbs reflective cycle model is selected by me because it provides good starting
point for reflective practices. It is also influenced by the David Kolb's model. The reflection of
this model helps me in writing the clear reflection which in last provides the opportunity to look
at the incident from various perspectives. The model includes 6 stages are defined below such as:
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Description- Daisy was a middle age woman near about age of 55+ admitted onto the ward. She
was suffering from cancer disease with last stage of symptoms. In starting we define the
consequences, pain and procedure of chemotherapy to her and other family members. I was
informed by my mentor to look after the Daisy. When is started to communicate with her I was
unable to understand the meaning of her sign languages. She was struggling from the pain at the
time of sessions of chemotherapy. At the of providing care services, health assistant and other
staff members were also facing the same situation.
Feelings- Throughout my entire working experience I encountered many types of feelings
towards various situations. In respect to this situation several types of feelings were encountered
by me and other caring roles. Due to difference in language and disease like cancer, the caring
roles did not paint a positive picture of Daisy. I also explored that by my care organisation, some
actions and initiatives were not taken to in order to resolve the problem of communication gap.
As per the NFC code of professional conduct, 2008 caring roles and staff members of care
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Illustration 1: Gibbs reflective cycle
Source: (Using Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle. 2014)

organisation requires to treat the patient by maintaining their dignity with respect. By reflective
back I feel that I should have been forceful and questioned to my mentor about the
discrimination (Gibbs' (1998) reflective cycle. 2016).
Evaluation- It was really a shame situation for caring roles that they acted in such manner
towards Daisy. By this type of discriminative behaviour and communication gap, she also
became angry and frustrated which was not healthy for her health condition. In this I explored
that at my workplace that communication level was lacking. Due to this health professionals and
caring roles were unable to understand the accurate problem of Daisy.
Analysis- Basically open and effective communication process is required between health
professional and service user. The communication process helps in understanding the conditions
and requirements of patient. In order to communicate and interact with Daisy requires the use of
interpersonal skills. The interpersonal skills are verbal and non verbal communication. By using
this methods, information was delivered to Daisy with the help of images and videos. To convey
the message that I understand her message I also did facial communication like happy,
interesting, not good etc. In addition to this I hire one person who was acting as a mediator
because the was aware of Daisy's sign language.
Conclusion- I conclude that by using the methods and skills of communication I was able to
understand the requirements of Daisy effectively. In addition to this, I explored that my decision
was right for me and Daisy to hire a translator (Stonehouse, 2011).
Action plan- This model effectively assisted me in creating sense of incident. It describes me the
importance of communication skills and methods. It also guides me that how I can put this
experience in my future practice to get positive outcome.
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10th September 2015
INTRODUCTION
Role play is an activity in which players assume the roles of different characters and
cooperate each other for achieving its objectives (Stokoe, 2011). The role play activity is based
on the role of communication in health and social care organisations. For the reflective practice,
Boud's triangular model is used by me.
Boud's triangular model helps in reflective analysis of the individual. It includes three
steps: Experience, Reflection and Learning. In this, experience represents the description of the
events, reflection shows the unpicking of the events and learning represents the enhancement of
skills, knowledge, etc. due to that event (Learning to teach: becoming a reflective practitioner,
2016).
2. The role-play and group formation
For organising the role play activity, following steps are followed by us:
Situation of the role play: The situation used for the role play was role of communication in
health and social care. The reason behind using this situation was to explain us the importance of
communication. After this, character of each participant was described properly. 4 members
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Illustration 2: Boud's reflective model
Source (Learning to teach: becoming a reflective practitioner, 2016)

were selected for this role play. All the members were new to each other. The roles decided were
of doctor, patient, nurse, care-worker and family member of the patient. Along with this,
importance and goal of each player was described to us, so that we can give our best. We were
guided to analyse our role properly so that we can effectively act them. We were also offered
different books on health care for better understanding of the role. I was playing the role of
patient suffering from mental disorder. In addition, we were also informed about our audience so
that we can prepare ourselves accordingly (Learning to teach: becoming a reflective practitioner.
2016).
Role Play Design: In this, we were the process of performing our roles properly. Each and every
step of the role play was designed properly. It was also analysed that selected members were able
to act the provided roles effectively or not. List was formed for the things required during the
role play such as stethoscope, bell, table, chair, pen, diary, etc. Script was also checked for
identifying any mistake or error. The place where the play was going to implement was analysed
properly.
Preparation: At the time of preparation, different problems were faced by me. As all the
members of the play were new to each other, there was ineffective communication. Along with
it, some were facing the problem of adjustment due to which it was not possible for us to act
properly. In addition, the beliefs, perceptions, opinion of the members were different and it was
causing the situation of conflicts. I was unable to adjust myself among the new members of the
team and due to this I was facing the issue of communication. On the other hand, I was unable to
prepare my role as I was a patient and the person who was playing the role of doctor was
unknown to me. I was not able to involve myself completely into the play. This thing was
irritating me and I was facing the issue of conflict due to diverse thinking (Broadbent, 2013).
For resolving the issue, informal meeting was organised by the team leader, where all the
team members were introduced to each other. This informal meeting made us to understand the
perception and opinion of each other. After this, I involved properly into the role play and started
acting my role according to the script with the doctor and nurse. It was a challenge for me to
adjust myself among the other team members and to play properly. But the strategy of informal
meeting helped me a lot in resolving the issue of communication, team management, relationship
management and time management.
Implementation: After proper practice, we all implement our role play in front of the audience.
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According to the Boud's triangular reflective model, all the above steps are involved in
the experience, reflective and learning. Experience: It includes the event and its features. For me, the event is role play and its
features are 4 participants, different roles, situations, script, etc. It was a good experience
for me which learnt me many things. This helped me in understanding the importance of
the communication in health and social care along within the team. The complete role
play was a nice experience for me. Reflection: It includes the unpicking facts of the event. In the role play, the unpicking
facts were the improper communication, lack of adjustment, disputes among the team
members, ineffective team and time management. All these things were making the
situation worse and creating disputes among us. I was also facing the problem of
adjusting myself among the new members and improper communication with them
(Nelson, 2012).
 Learning: I learnt my things from the preparation of the role play. It helped me in
improving and developing my skills, abilities and knowledge. I learnt how to cooperate
with each other, how to adjust myself among the new people, how to act patiently and
calmly, etc. The preparation of the role play made me aware about the importance of
communication and relationship management. AT the time of designing role play, I learnt
about the health and social care activities, roles of doctor, nurses, patient, etc.
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17th September 2015
INTRODUCTION
Role play helps in knowing the real situation and the problem faced by the real world. It
leads to develop many new skills and abilities among the participants (Krogstie and et.al., 2012).
For the evaluation and learning from the role play, Gibbs reflective model was implemented by
me.
Gibbs' model is one of the popular model used for the reflective analysis. This includes 6 stages
of the reflection which are: Description, Feelings, Evaluation, Analysis, Conclusion and Action
plan (Gibbs' (1998) reflective cycle, 2016). In this section, this model is used for identifying the
learning from the role play.
3. Evaluation and learning from the role-play
Gibb's model for the evaluation and learning from the role-play is as follows:
Description:
While implementing the role play, the team members play there role effectively. I played
the role of patient suffering from the mental disorder. The doctor did not communicate properly
with me, did not pay attention to my problem, nurse also spoke rudely with me and my friend.
All these factors dissatisfied my friend and he took me to another health care firm. The care
worker of that firm deal with us properly by asking each and every thing. He also noted done
every minute information of me. This satisfies my friend and he admitted me into that new
hospital. The role of doctor was played effectively along with the role of nurse. The role of my
friend was small but important which he played very well. Along with this, care worker also
played good role.
Feelings:
I was feeling nervous before the play but after reaching to the stage, I got confidence
which made me to act properly. I was also feeling excited as it was my first role play. On the
other hand, I was facing stress also due to the various issues occurred in team at the time of
preparation. Overall I was praying for an effective and proper role play. On the other hand,
condition of my team members was also same. They were nervous and reviving their roles again
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and again. I was motivating everyone for increasing their confidence level so that they can
perform well (Tsingos and et.al., 2014).
Evaluation:
I think, the role play was good and well presented. Although few mistakes done by me
and my team members such as I forgot my lines while dealing with doctor and there was a little
lack of coordination by him as well. Due to these issues, team members were not satisfied by
their role and actions. As per my views, the reason behind the issues was lack of communication
and coordination at the time of preparation. The team leader was appreciating the role of each
and every member so that no-one can blame anyone. I also got positive feedbacks with the other
members.
Analysis:
In my opinion, the problem behind the improper role play was lack of communication
and coordination. The conflict between the doctor and me was not resolved and due to this we
were unable to act properly. I also not tired to solve the issue otherwise, the role play could be
more effective. Lack of proper preparation with doctor made me to forget my lines and
coordinate with him properly (Using Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle. 2014).
Conclusion:
From the complete role play, I concluded that communication plays important role in a
team. I also came to know about the importance of coordination and cooperation among the team
members. I posses good presentation skills but lack of team management and communication
skills affected my play. I came to understand that it is better to resolve the disputes for getting
effective results at the end.
Action Plan:
I am going to improve my communication and team management skills by joining some
coaching. In addition, I will learn different methods for effective communication such as body
language, proper eye contact, etc. Along with this, I am going to take more part in the role play
or other activities for increasing my team management skills.
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24th September 2015
INTRODUCTION
In order to deliver the quality based care and support services to service users by
considering their requirements and health condition, skilled persons are required. For this
purpose, it is important for every caring roles to focus on the development process. The process
of personal development basically nurture and nourish the current skills and qualities of
individuals. With help of self development process, individual can evaluate and maximize their
potential and capabilities in more effective manner. In this context, with the purpose of reflective
practice on personal development, Boud's triangular representation model is considered by me.
The model of Boud's triangular helps to reflect on particular event or incident that can
facilitate the learning. The model holds three steps in a cycle such as experience, reflection and
learning. In this context, experience refers to description of incidents, reflection refers to
unpicking of that incident and last learning shows the rise in knowledge, skills and abilities etc.
The aim of this reflective report is to describe the importance of learning for personal
development (Tsingos and et.al., 2014).
4. Personal development
Working as a health care professional in care organisation, I experience many things and
sometimes I learn many lessons from them. In this context, I taking the same incident of Daisy
(Described on 1st September 2015). she was suffering from cancer and also hearing impaired.
That incident defines the importance and use of proper communication at the workplace. The
drawbacks which encounters on that time helps in improving the skills and abilities of mine. This
model is selected by me for analysing my learning from the past experience. It is easy to use and
implement on life events. It mainly focuses on the learning which is beneficial for personal
development form me. The present model includes three steps in a cycle such as:
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Experience- At the time of handling the case of Daisy, I explored that she was from another
country and also a hearing impaired. Due to the difference in language, caring roles were facing
the problems to interact with her. On that I experience that at my workplace there is lack of
communication in effective manner is not present. After the facing the situation of
communication on that time I recognize that my skills and capabilities also requires to be nourish
more, so that I could meet the requirements of service users and Daisy as well. At that i9 was
experiencing that she was facing the issues like pain in chemotherapy sessions and in that she
was unable to describe her feelings. I was feeling so bad for her (Ekebergh, 2011).
Reflection- Daisy can not hear and unable to express her feeling and pain but it is not right that
caring roles started to ignore and discriminate her just because she belongs to another country.
The feeling of ignorance and discrimination lead her to behave in certain ways like angry,
aggressive and sad. I started to reflect on this incident that if the translator or mediator hired at
right time, proper care and support services could be offered to her. I also analyse that I should
take the initiative to use the various communication methods at the time of interacting her.
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Illustration 3: Boud's triangular representation model
Source: ()