What Is The Importance Of Descriptive Communication

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The Importance of Standard Nomenclature and Assertive Communication in the Professional Healthcare Environment

Effective, unambiguous communication is a fundamental professional skill not only in paramedicine (Tavares & Mausz, 2015; Williams, Onsman, & Brown, 2010), but also in essentially every other medical field (Vermeir et al., 2015). Therefore, subskills such as rapport building, assertiveness and active listening are of paramount importance in contributing to healthy workplace relationships (Grover, 2005). Using the “4Rs” model of reflection, I intend to reflect upon and further analyse the interview I recently conducted with a medical scientist concerning the importance of successful communication in his cytology department. Furthermore, …show more content…

For example, when I started my first part time job in the food industry, I quickly discovered that it was better to simply speak up when I did not know or understand a particular aspect of my task instead of trying to bluff my way through it. This was one aspect of good and honest assertive communication A. Hodgson specified as being important. Additionally, as a sporting umpire, assertive verbal communication was an extremely important skill. A crucial component of this was sending consistently clear messages by using the standard terms and nomenclature. Moreover, I have participated in several team environments and have discovered that it is important to monitor your interactions to ensure that you are correctly balancing your output of first and second person communications. This is because these ratios are often different to those found in more common situations such as casual one-on-one conversations (Neuman & Wright, 1999). Although my primarily sporting team experiences are different to A. Hodgson’s professional team experience, regardless, it is still important to use the correct team-specific communication skills when participating in such …show more content…

Hodgson, I have reconstructed some of my ideas concerning successful communication in the professional medical environment. Even though the field of cytology and my future area of work as a paramedic differ in various respects, effective communication is nevertheless a key foundational skill in the extensive majority of health careers (Leonard et al., 2004; Stewart, 1995). Thus, I have been able to reform some of my old views and even form new ones as a result of the concepts my interviewee told me about. Although prior to the interview I would have agreed that the standardisation of terms was important, I had never seriously considered the integrally essential role consistent nomenclature has to play in the health field. I can honestly say that as a result of my interview I will carry this new mindset with me into my future practice. For example, the use of standard terms will be vital when writing case notes which may potentially be used as legal evidence or as a part of a patient’s medical file. In the case of the latter, these records could be an important piece of the puzzle for practitioners who are trying to diagnose a seemingly mystery illness. Therefore because it is imperative that notes are detailed, accurate and clear, standard nomenclature significantly aids these endeavours. Furthermore, when handing patient’s over to emergency department staff (especially in a time-limited, high stress situation when a patient

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