Improving Healthcare Practitioner Communication Skills

Becoming and remaining an effective leader in any healthcare setting requires a wide range of skills, including most especially the abilities to analyze complex situations and communicate with clinicians from multiple disciplines. The Leadership and Communication coursework provided valuable information and insights concerning these professional needs, but it are also important to reflect on the lessons learned in order to reinforce the learning process. To this end, this four-part reflection paper provides a discussion concerning fresh insight developed with respect to my working style and how I work with others. In addition, an assessment concerning the insights gained regarding conversations and interactions with friends, family, coworkers, and others is followed by a discussion of the strategies that will be used to improve chances for success in the future. Finally, a summary of these four parts and the insights gained is provided in the conclusion.

One of the more interesting issues that emerged from my working style score were the relatively high scores for the "examine" variable, suggesting that my working style is highly organized, detail-oriented and methodical, which I consider a personal strength. These findings conform to what others have observed about my working style in the past as well as my own preferences for using a step-wise approach to problem-solving and situation analysis. Conversely, the working style score also indicated a challenge with respect to the "explore" variable, suggesting that there needs to be more effort made to ensure that as much information about a situation is gathered prior to making any substantive decisions. In addition, the scores on the "execute" variable reflect a reluctance on my part to actually make a decision, even when I believe that all of the information that is needed to make an informed decision has been gathered. This reluctance easily translates into lost opportunities and diminished effectiveness of performance.

Given these respective strengths and weaknesses, the preferred working style of a teammate would be one in which the individual was highly focused on observing all of the details of a given situation, especially those that might go otherwise undiscerned by individuals with contrary working styles. In addition, the preferred teammate would recognize when all of the requisite information that was needed for an informed decision had been gathered and would therefore be prepared to make a decision and implement an appropriate solution. The combination of these attributes would contribute to the successful completion of a project by ensuring that not only was all of the relevant information needed identified beforehand, the process proceeded in an organized and thoughtful manner.

Over the years, my conversational experiences with friends, family, coworkers, and others have used the various listening modes depending on the circumstances. While I have found that I prefer an accurate listening mode in general, there are situations in which the others are more appropriate. For example, during the holidays when large numbers of family members congregate, some people I have never met or barely know try to convince me other the rightness of their opinions about everything under the sun, including some issues that are important to me, requiring a pretense listening mode.

By contrast, if a close family member does the same thing, my listening mode tends to change to one of sincerity because I am authentically interested in their views and how they agree and disagree with my own. In yet other situations such as workplace conversations that involve initiatives for which I have responsibilities, an accuracy listening mode is best suited to ensure that what is being communicated is received and understood. In sum, my experiences with these different listening modes all tend to reinforce the respective nature of the relationships with others.

Similarly, my experiences with talking modes (i.e., pretense, sincerity, accuracy, or authenticity) in conversations with various people and in varying situations also indicate that different strategies are required for different situations depending on the status of the verbal exchange partner. It is therefore important to reflect on which talking modes are best suited for different situations based on their effects on existing relationships and the outcomes that are achieved. For example, according to Neu (2012), "In all cases and in all senses, the surest route to the self-understanding that truth, sincerity, and authenticity require includes self-examination. So far as those are of value, we have yet further reason for believing that the unexamined life is not worth living" (p. 64).

Finally, it is clear that when my listening and talking modes are optimally suited to the situation, they have created cycles of value in my relationships with others. Not surprisingly, suboptimal or inappropriate listening and talking modes create cycles of waste in these relationships because effective communication is not being accomplished. Upon reflection, I find that in far too many cases, I may have overlooked important verbal and nonverbal cues that could have helped me interpret what was being communicated.

To help overcome this constraint, a communication mode that has proven efficacy in increasing cycles of value while concomitantly decreasing cycles of waste is the active listening approach advocated by Keyser (2013) which improves the flow of information between verbal exchange partners. Moreover, Keyser emphasizes that despite its importance, this level of communication does not just occur but the techniques can be learned. In this regard, Keyser adds that, "Fortunately, listening is a skill people can learn. With specific self-observation practices, anyone can begin to improve his listening" (p. 27). Taken together, it is clear that effective communications with others requires a listening and talking mode that is appropriate for the situation but which also includes exchange partners making an authentic and conscious effort to understand what information is being exchanged.

The learning habits and skills I need to become an excellent student are: (1) developing improved active listening skills and (2) becoming more observant concerning all of the factors that could affect the outcome of a decision prior to its formulation.

The learning habits and skills I already have are: (1) detail orientation and (2) a methodical approach to problem-solving and situation analyses.

The learning habits and skills I need to develop are: (1) becoming more observant of situational factors and (2) becoming an active listener.

The plan I have for developing and sustaining the learning habits I need to develop is practicing active listening and requesting periodic feedback from exchange partners to evaluate my progress.

1. What did you learn from these exercises? The Leadership and Communication coursework made it clear that although organizational change and conflict is inevitable, it can be managed in ways that contribute to the achievement of goals. It was also made clear that there is an overarching need for continuous need for quality improvement in healthcare organizations and that the type of organizational culture that is in place will have an enormous impact on how well the quality improvement process is accomplished. Likewise, recent trends in innovative healthcare information technologies have provided healthcare practitioners with a broad array of tools that can be used to improve the quality of healthcare services and the efficiency with which these services are delivered.

2. What was challenging in these exercises? Working with others in a group to achieve a common goal can be an especially challenging experience, especially if there are already interpersonal differences between other members that adversely affect the group's performance.

3. Were these exercises valuable to you, even if they were challenging? Notwithstanding the challenges that were involved, every opportunity to improve communication skills helps healthcare professionals become more effective in the workplace and in their relationships with others.