Reflection Paper
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Jan 9, 2024
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Task 1: Reflection Paper -REVISED
Rabeca Plummer
Course: Interprofessional Communication and Leadership in Healthcare - D235
December 6, 2023
Forward
Please review the following paper with the knowledge that I had previously completed this course, with all of the live sessions, in July and August 2020. This paper is reflective of the experience I had, with my cohorts, at that time.
Energy Graph
My energy graph showed that I was Effortless in Excite and Examine, Deliberate+ in Execute, and Deliberate in Explore. One of my greater strengths is my ability to quickly switch from work mode to fun mode through Excite. I have a four-year-old and I am a nurse and full-time student. I need to be able to commit to writing a paper, learning something new, and caring for my patients, and then come home and play with my son and forget the day’s worries. I also enjoy learning new things, this comes easily to me with traditional learning strategies, this is my Examine. I love to read, and the information tends to stick with me. On the flip side, I struggle with being overly critical. I love logic and reason and it baffles and frustrates me when people act irrationally, especially when it comes to the workplace, I think this is my Explore vein, I need to work on exploring other options that
were not presented by me. I also tend toward acting like a freight train in my Execute energy. I do not typically make a quick decision, but when I have made up my mind, I am near unstoppable. This can be a great weakness because I may need to make rash decisions in an emergency at work and that adds stress to my day. The good news is that most emergencies have a well laid plan of action that I can memorize and follow. It is hard for me when people and incidents deviate from the script. I was not very surprised by my results, I felt like the learning report was written by someone I have
worked with, or my spouse! In the years since I first completed this course, I have found a new position in a cardiovascular prep and recovery unit, this has informed a lot of new opinions. When it comes to working in a team setting (such as a nursing unit), I find that I work best with people who value the same work styles or have the same work styles as myself. My current team includes a lot of likeminded people, we are quick to make judgement calls, and highly self-reliant. My teammates are effortless in excite and examine, they jump into action, love a good time, and are jovial to be around. Then, we have lively discussions and debates about our patients and the best course of action or the root causes of their diagnoses. My team is very by the book, I have found my home amongst co-workers who appreciate the rules and regulations and like to work within the set parameters. This helps to execute things in an orderly fashion, it leaves little up for debate, it ensures we all know our jobs and how to perform them for the best possible outcomes. No one in my
team would claim “I am not your nurse” or “that is not my problem”, everyone pitches in to create a cohesive experience for the patients. Now, explore is something I think a lot of my teammates struggle with and something I have still struggled with. This is an area wherein we can all be a little more effortless. We work in the same unit with the same doctors and the same type of patients, day in and day out. I have learned to be happy with my work and my contributions to the world on a smaller scale through working with my team, however, I notice that we get stuck in a cardio-vascular mindset and find it hard to assess the full patient sometimes when they present with symptoms of another systemic issue. Exploration should push us to learn about more than just our specialty. The Conversation Meter
As a nurse, I have had a lot of conversations with patients that required them to engage and retain education on their health. I have been met with resistance on occasion. When the patient disregards the first law of conversation, I lose them immediately. This happens when the patient wants to speak only to the doctor and has little to no regard for the expertise of a nurse. If the patient
believes that you are critical of their lifestyle or choices, they will not listen to the information. They
resist because they perceive you as threatening to things they enjoy, or they perceive you as a threat to their intelligence because you are criticizing their decisions. I have had to learn to listen to a
patient’s concerns and ideas, even if they are irrational. These laws are assisted when the patient and I acknowledge the Conversation Meter. The conversation meter consists of Pretense, Sincerity, Accuracy, and Authenticity. If I can overcome the “pretense” area on the conversation and listen to the patient with “sincerity”, I can also listen with “authenticity” in my care for their health and I am able to inform them in a way that the patient may respond better to. If the patient can recognize the “accuracy” of the information being presented and see my “authentic” desire for their health, they can listen more intently and find a way to retain the information. For example: a lifelong smoker may approach my cessation education within the “pretense” section of the conversation meter. They can give the appearance of listening but do not care what I have to say because they have heard it all before and they know all the relevant information but will not stop smoking. However, if they are open to listening to me and can tell that I truly care about their health and believe in the benefits and I am able to give them statistics and facts that they can correlate to their lives, they could move out of pretense, into sincerity, accuracy, and even authentically start to listen and hear reason for change. A specific instance of these types of conversations happened to me fairly recently, I had just
recovered a patient who a received two heart stents, as soon as they were able to eat, he asked how to call in an order. As I handed him the menu, I explained why I was giving him a specific “cardio menu” and what that entailed. His eyes never left the menu, he never looked at me, I could tell he was not listening. I left him with the menu and phone, knowing that his diet orders would preclude him from ordering anything he wasn’t allowed, and I could print information about cardiac diet restrictions to go over with him prior to discharge. However, in the meantime, the patent’s wife brought him a large serving of fried chicken! I approached the couple and explained that the patient could not have the chicken while he was in the hospital under my care and that he should not have it
at home either. I referenced the conversation I had just had with the patient and he acted as if I had never told him any of it. Luckily, his wife began to engage with me and took the chicken away. She and I talked about a heart healthy diet and she took notes. I gave her educational materials and I left
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feeling heard, and hopeful that she would help the patient to understand the importance of changing his diet and lifestyle. Sometimes you have to use the tools available to you, such as a more willing and understanding family member. I was able to use the tools of this course to evaluate that the patient had no interest in the conversation, I was able to then sincerely engage with his wife and give
her accurate facts and a reasonable plan of action. We discussed getting an air fryer for crispy chicken without the grease! She started looking them up on Amazon right away. Bonding with her by
sharing recipes and tips was a way for her to see that I was authentic in my engagement with her and my belief that this was an attainable change to their lifestyles. When I approached this conversation, I had to bear in mind the Laws of Conversation. The wife had concerns and she had value to contribute. She would be able to communicate with her husband in a way that I was unable to at that moment. She was willing to listen and discuss the difficulties and challenges of changing a lifestyle after 55 years, she was able to give her concerns over to me for me to address and ease, we aligned. The patient was finding me threatening to his lifestyle and things that he enjoyed. Upon reflection, I should have been more engaging with him, I should have asked his concerns, I should have adjusted. I hope I was able to get through to him by interacting with his wife, but I created a cycle of waste between us by accepting his dismissal of my information, I was destroying and disagreeing with him, and then I dismissed his sense of self by speaking to his wife instead of him. Additionally, when I spoke with the wife, I pulled up a chair to sit with her, this is definitely under the umbrella of act, in my book, I did not do that with the patient in the first conversation. I learned to do this through working with fellow teammates who approach their listening and engaging skills differently than I had in the past. Sitting with the patient or family member shows with my body language that I am engaged in this conversation and I am giving it the time and attention it deserves,
I am not rushing out the door and easing away from them one step at a time so I can move on, this indicates that this conversation is a priority to me. I should have done that with the patient in the first place to create a cycle of value and show him that I was committed to the conversation. I have grown since this interaction and I have adopted this technique at home, with my relationships and interactions as well. I engage with my son and husband by making eye contact, sitting down with
them, putting aside my phone, and ensuring that my body indicates my sincerity. My authenticity is shown through my words and actions as well. I strive for accuracy in all of my conversations but, as with most marriages, we know that pretense can often be stumbling block. Are we really discussing what color to paint a wall or are we discussing every compromise that we have both made in our relationship to date? Does he remember it differently than I do? It is important to remember all of these tools and levels of communication and listening in every aspect of one’s life. Successful Student Strategies
My “Excite” team was tasked with listing ten ways that we can ensure we understand the material in each course. We found that talking about the information with a spouse or a friend is helpful, looking at the bigger picture and not getting stuck in the minutia of the information, refreshing
our minds with a break and coming back to the material helps, as well. We found that changing the media type, reading a physical book instead of the computer, writing out concept maps, and finding another resource that states the information in a different “voice” or “tone” worked when something was not sticking. My group also liked the idea of incorporating other people into our studying through
study groups, being quizzed, or teaching someone else the material (especially someone with no medical background). Being an Excite and Examine means that I am able to get excited about information that applies to my future profession but when I view information as superfluous, I have a hard time buckling down and learning or sticking to the schedule I set for myself. For instance, I really do not know how Constitutional Government will help me to be a successful nurse. I have set timelines for myself and strict study times. I have also included my husband in my discussions of the material because he remembers more of the information from high school. If I do not understand a concept, I ask him to explain it to me or I explain what I think is going on to him and ask for corrections and guidance. I am also nervous about my upcoming microbiology class, I will be reaching out to the course instructor, the Facebook support group, and my network of nursing friends for any study tips and tricks that might help me in this class. I find that I am better at working with outside sources than with the textbook itself and I will be looking for videos or flashcards that
can help me with these subjects. I have implemented a lot of these techniques with my husband, he was taking a course for his job and was struggling with remembering the material. His nerves were getting the better of him. I harkened back to this discussion and showed him new tools like “Kahoot” to present the information in a different media. He passed his test and got his certification!
Overall Experience
I did not enjoy this class very much. However, it felt like there was a purpose to it and I was able to endure it for the sake of my future career. I am impatient with others, and I learned that there are strategies to become a better listener. I had to practice that and put in a large amount of effort towards listening during the 10 hours of live class sessions. I think I will benefit from that, long term, in all aspects of my life. In my professional career, I need to be a better listener to my patients and my peers. I especially need to learn to be a better listener to those who are fundamentally different than me, in pace or thought processes. I will use the Conversation Meter in context with my patients and ensure that I am listening accordingly and authentically to my patients to ensure they receive the
best care possible from me. I also learned things about my spouse through this class. I learned that he exerts so much Execute and Examine energy at work that he just wants to be Excite at home. I have always solely viewed him as Excite and that was a new revelation. It helped our communication with everyday activities, so I can have some help in the execution of things at home. I just needed to tell him what I need help with. I am grateful that this course opened the door for this conversation. The five dynamics survey was helpful to us, and I would like to use it when faced with a challenging person at work or home. I can use this tool as a jumping off point for the conversations
that need to be had about working together constructively. I can also use the five dynamics as a way
to describe my personal work style to my future managers and coworkers so we can start off on a strong foot. For instance, I am able to approach my current manager with ideas I have for improving the unit. This is that excite mode in me, I was then assigned to represent my unit and meet with people from three other departments that we work closely with, to discuss how to work together
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better in the future and point of contention or issues we needed to address to ensure a peaceful work environment. We executed this through updating an existing checklist and through discussion of expectations from every department so we could ensure that we were all on the same page, and then updating the information and sending it to all the involved departments. We examined the points that we were having a break-down of communication and found common ground. I was nervous to meet with these people and I felt a lot of pressure from my department to represent them,
this is the explore part of me that needs work. I could also improve on this aspect of myself by getting out of my comfort zone more often, I could go to those units and take the time to view things from their side, this would only make my experience and input more valuable. However, I feel I successfully used the dynamics to teach my coworkers how to have a constructive meeting and how
to move forward with the actions we had discussed, I will continue to use them and strengthen my weaknesses to become a more valuable part of my team at work and home.