In my practice, there was an incident involving ineffective communication that I believe could have been handled more elegantly and effectively. A fellow nurse, who often has a problem expressing herself earnestly, often looks or sounds sarcastic when she speaks – this makes it difficult to discern whether information is genuine or not (Alspach, 2007). One minor example of this was during a routine checkup; this first nurse weighed the patient and checked his blood pressure, then I was sent in to talk about their specific symptoms. I was told by the nurse that they weighed “300 pounds,” to which I took through the context of our interaction to believe was a genuine reading. This led me to make mistaken assumptions about the patient when entering the room (they turned out to be only slightly overweight as opposed to the obese patient I was expecting from her message).
Looking at the communication process, it was clear that the nurse’s internal climate was somewhat tumultuous, as she was in a bad mood and used sarcasm to deflect those negative feelings. The verbal message was different from the nonverbal message, as her tone and physicality reflected sarcasm while her words were straightforward. My internal climate was incompatible with hers, as I was expecting earnestness when she delivered sarcasm in her message (McGonigle & Mastrian 2011, p. 423). This was one of several communication barriers and challenges that led to this incident. One strategy that could be used to avoid future incidents like this one is to cultivate a more cohesive group-building rapport among nurses. This way, nurses can understand fully when people are communicating earnestly or not (Morinaga et al., 2008). Recognizing the individual roles of group members is important, even when they are Aggressors or Playboys, which are roles the nurse in question embody through her use of sarcasm and cynicism (McGonigle & Mastrian 2011, p. 438). Limiting these types of attitudes may also result in more positive nursing outcomes.
References
Alspach, G. (2007). Critical care nurses as coworkers: are our interactions nice or nasty? Critical
care nurse, 27(3), 10-14.
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian K. (2011). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge.
Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Morinaga, K., Ohtsubo, Y., Yamauchi, K., & Shimada, Y. (2008). Doctors’ traits perceived by
Japanese nurses as communication barriers: A questionnaire survey. International journal of nursing studies, 45(5), 740-749.
