Essay on Active Listening in Effective Communication

The communication cycle of this role play was very rapid; one the patient expressed their feelings or emotions, I listened carefully and responded back suggestion a solution, therefore showing that I was concentrated in the patient. Also using hand gesture s as prompts made the patient feel as if I was intrusted in what they had to say, and wanted to listen to more of what they had to say.

Communicating with your patient is vital to enhance patient’s comfort, trust, safety, and overall well-being. Some therapeutic communications are active listening, ask questions, give recognition, give information, offer self, use silence, give feedback, be empathetic, limit setting, etc. Whereas some of the non-therapeutic communications are: changing the subject, overloading with information, giving advice, false reassurance, being sympathetic, etc. Also, body language, eye contact, gestures, and tone of voice are nonverbal communication that we need to be aware of when communicating with the

Tony Robins hit the nail on the head when he said, “To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.” There are several different factors that influence the communication between medical professionals like doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists and the patients they treat. A few of these include the ability to explain or comprehend information, time spent face to face with patients, and the inability to practice active listening. The first interaction with a patient will set the tone for their care and the more comfortable a patient feels, the more they will divulge during their initial interview.

Investigating problems on both the doctors and patients side during the interaction at any medical appointment is key when interpreting statistics that relate to this matter. These aspects will be further explored later in this paper. The general consensus from many articles and studies indicate that miscommunication is a massive problem that impacts many individuals who die each year from miscommunication. Furthermore, each article shows a different perspective on where this error comes from and where, both doctor and patient, go wrong and what they can both do to improve the communication between them. Another aspect that must also be incorporated into this argument is that communication is not all verbal and that non-verbal communication can be just as effective or ineffective when it comes to dealing with other medical personnel or patients. The 7% rule coined by Albert Mehrabian in his book “Silent Messages” states that “93% of communication is non-verbal, with 55% being body language and 38% being tone of voice; leaving only 7% of communication being verbal.” (“Silent Messages” Albert Mehrabian), and that ineffective or bad non-verbal communication can be just as detrimental during an interaction as verbal communication. Unfortunately, for doctors, the precision of the execution in this small 7% of communication is crucial when explaining challenging

In summary, the experience of observing and reflecting on this video vignette, elevated my understanding of the range of techniques that enhances communication therapeutically, such as active listening, empathy, developing rapport and the use of non-threatening body language and tone of voice to alleviate patient anxiety and illicit patient cooperation. Moreover, the act of reflective contemplation gave me an understanding of what it means to be self-aware - to be able to recognise and arrest idiosyncrasies such as personal moral values and cultural beliefs so as to promote a healthcare environment that is patient-centred. As general workplace and healthcare resource pressures increases, it becomes even more relevant for healthcare practitioners and future clinicians to be versed in such techniques, so that despite the pressure, they are better able to manage their emotional and physical

Communication is an equal understanding of a message between a sender and a receiver. Demonstrative communication can take many forms in both verbal and nonverbal cues. The nonverbal ways of communication cannot only enhance a message, but also if done poorly, can hinder a message as well. With verbal communication, choice of words can be an effective tool. Senders of messages should choose vocabulary wisely, depending on the receiver. If not done properly, semantic noise can occur. Semantic noise is “when the receiver of the message doesn’t understand a word or gesture used by the sender or has a different meaning for the word or gesture” (Cheesbro, O'Connor, & Rios, 2010).

Part One: Options in Communicating, ultimately introduced other readers as well as myself the key components of understanding how scientific theory of listening can play a vital role in listening and comprehension. This section was broken down into six subtopics. The intro, 1. Communicating became important to me, in which Mr. Peterson explains how his personal experiences as well as witnessing others, made it easier for him understand the concept of balancing with communication. Mr. Peterson also talks about the theory of behavior that can also significantly have a great deal of impact with communicating (Peterson, 2007, p15).

Verbal and non-verbal communication forms the interactions that a person has with others. Susan recognizes the important role that communication plays in enhancing positive outcome in their counselling session. Susan’s verbal and non-verbal communication allow the couple to quickly become comfortable with her and open up about their feelings. Susan always faces the person that is talking and she maintains a proper amount of eye contact with that person. Not making eye contact gives the perception of not caring and excessive eye contact can make a person uncomfortable or feel intruded upon. Susan maintains a soft demeanor throughout the session by speaking in a calm comforting voice and having a relaxed posture. This non-verbal communication gives the couple the perception that Susan genuinely cares about what they have to say. Susan asks the couple to describe their relationship and how each individual feels about the state of the current relationship. She is constantly showing the couple that she understands what is being said by verbally communicating to them the emotions they must have felt in the situations they are describing. She expresses empathy by saying statements like “I hear you” or “I understand” which gives the couple reassurance that they are being heard and she cares about their

Active listening is taking information in and processing it, and about our physical demeanor and body language. The model for non-verbal communication referred to as SOLER describes five specific behaviors that encourage a listening posture: "Sit squarely"; "Open position"; "Lean towards the other"; "Eye contact; and "Relax" (Griffith, & Dunham, 2015). I first learned of the theory in nursing school, in particular, used in counseling however it can be utilized at any time such as when listening to friends. The Soler theory developed by Gerard Egan, a psychologist, believed non-verbal communication could significantly improve the effectiveness of communication between individuals (Griffith, & Dunham, 2015). Also, the approach shows how non-verbal

Effective communication, both verbal and non-verbal constituents, is the foundation of a trusting and engaging therapeutic alliance between a patient and a health care professional (HCP), such as a physiotherapist (PT)1,2,3. The verbal constituent is what is said, such as posing an open ended question1. The non-verbal constituent, for purposes of this paper, refers to factors that give verbal cues (or content) context, such as the tone of voice1,2,3,6,7. Although communication requires both, non-verbal

Generally when a patient or their loved ones find themselves speaking to medical professionals in a medical crisis there is a tremendous amount of nonverbal communication that takes place. Nearly all individuals will demonstrate a classic submissive communication posture when listening to medical professional deliver information. Mrs. X is a patient and Mr. X is her husband, they received bad news from the medical team on the state of

Active listening includes a variety of behaviors which communicate to the other that they are heard and understood, that the feelings which underlie the words are appreciated and accepted, and that regardless of what the individual says, thinks or feels, they are accepted as a person by the listener. Active listening demands that the receiver of the message put aside the belief that listening is easy and that it happens naturally and realize that effective listening is hard work. Good listening encourages the speaker, promotes trust and respect, improves relationships, and makes resolution of problems more likely. Good listeners are prepared to listen, show interest, keep an open mind, listen critically, resist distractions,

Active listening is an attentive and interactive form of listening. One of the primary objectives of active listening is establishing and achieving empathy among all parties engaged in communication together. The words a person uses during communication are important, yet active listening includes listening to a person's words as well as interpreting and intuiting what a person feels and thinks. Active listening is a highly engaging activity. Active listening requires the person doing the listening to have a very keen awareness of all aspects of the communication. Active listening then is a sensory activity that challenges the listener to see, hear, sense, perceive, understand, feel, empathize, and reciprocate.

Listening is an important form of communication. Unfortunately, many people who do not know how to listen believe they can listen well. They often say "I have been doing this all of my life of course I can listen". Listening is not inherited, or a personality trait, it is a skill that must be worked on and practiced.

To address the verbal and nonverbal interaction among the members of a group the video titled “Annie” best illustrates this. In the video there is clearly both listening and miscommunication going on. The setting of this video is that the title character, Annie is a high school girl, who seems to be suffering from a possible eating disorder as well as depression (Understanding Relationship- Helping Annie, 2008). A nurse from a school has called upon a meeting with a psychiatrist and a social worker to seek out a possible treatment plan for Annie.