Question

Post a summary of an incident involving ineffective communication. Describe communication barriers and other challenges that contributed to the incident. Propose one or more strategies that could have been employed to promote a better outcome. Be sure to refer to elements of the communication process

Answer 1

Communication is a a way of conveying something to others.Ineffective communication refers to lack of delivery of the particular message to the recipient.

A patient who is female posted for abdominal surgery next day, needs pre-op preparation.The patient is of young age,diffident in nature and an immigrant from other state.Who has difficulty in understanding the other language.The patient had difficulty in understanding the pre op procedures (shaving,NBM,removing ornaments ,etc.)by a male nurse.

The communication barrier here are language barrier gender barrier and language barrier.

The challenges contributed here is creating an environment which is most comfortable, respectful for the patient by a male nurse in order to carry out the basic procedures and gaining patients confidence.

Some of the strategies that could have been employed to promote a better outcomes are

• Assignment of same gender staff for patients especially when female
• Getting an help from the female colleague while preparing the patient for any privacy procedures like shaving of abdomen
• A translator can act as a mediator in explaining the procedures to the patients

The elements ofcommunication process can be used in a simpler way as following

Here a communication channel has to be established while sending the message .The ideas (procedures ) has to be encoded in the language the patient understands .Making sure the patient receives or understands the message and executd it.