Good Communicator Essay

Effective communication begins when a specific message is conveyed to people and that your idea is being received and people understand what you are saying to them. This is especially important in the healthcare industry because proper interpretation from patients is critical in them receiving the utmost care and proper diagnosis. Interaction between healthcare workers, doctors and patients is critical in communicating symptoms, diagnosis and test results and treatment of patients. When workers are able to communicate with each other it makes it easier to interact with the patients by having all the needed information, whether it was symptoms relayed from patient, test results relayed from lab or diagnosis relayed from the doctor. There are six characteristics of both supportive and defensive relationships, where one set of characteristics focus on compassion and empathy and defensive characteristics are to the point and abrupt without any interpersonal communication between parties involved. Supportive relationships would seem to be the better choice for the healthcare industry because like a broken wheel halts forward progress, so does non-communication among professionals and patients. When there is no empathy present with a patient they feel like no one understands their problem and feel like they are not getting the help that they deserve. Assertive communication allows an idea to be brought up and talked about but making sure all parties are respected. By being assertive is a learned technique to use and if not done correctly can cause conflicts among the workplace because people do not like abrupt changes in the workplace. Once changes are felt by all and are eventually practiced, it becomes part of a daily routine in the office and there are no longer conflicts having to be resolved. When being assertive one must not become aggressive also or a person would become known as a â€Å"bully† in the workplace and doesn’t care what the consequences of actions will entail. Not only can assertive behavior be bad if not utilized correctly, it may also cause undue stress on the coronary system and could ultimately lead to a heart attack or stroke. When using an assertive style in the workplace, one must be aware of negative reactions that could occur and be able to be ready with additional information to sway the receiver. One must not be too aggressive with tone and pitch of the voice and it will send off the wrong impression to receivers and not sway them to understand what is being said. When faced with aggression most people react negatively and this would not be advisable in a healthcare setting. An example would be when a medical coder has a question on what a doctor has documented in a patients file that doesn’t seem appropriate for the diagnosis so a doctor must be spoken to get more information to code correctly but without pointing fingers at the doctor. If the coder inquires aggressively then the doctor would become irate over being questioned but if the coder were to inquire assertively they would seem more like they just wanted more information to properly code the patient’s records. I fall under the type B personality because I am very easy going, but I do want to be heard when needed. I don’t feel that aggression is the answer but I do feel that one can be assertive and get a point across without being viewed as being too aggressive. Assertiveness takes into account what others feel and say and aggressiveness is all about what â€Å"I† want and need and not what â€Å"they† want or need. Previous positions that I’ve worked, I had many supervisors that used very assertive behavior and they really didn’t get good feedback. When workers became assertive about their needs for specific things at work, then supervisors are more likely to hear what they want and react appropriately. I do have a hard time getting my point across because I know what I want to say in my brain but when it comes out of my mouth it becomes all jumbled and does not make sense. I’m trying to work on my communication skills and am hoping that this course will increase my skills so that I can speak more clear and concise and have people understand what I want to accomplish in the workplace.