Communication Conflict - Essay Example

Communication Conflict Student’s Name: Institutional Affiliation: University: Communication Conflict In life conflicts have to emerge. Conflict may occur between friends, family, partners or even coworkers. When they arise, sometimes they are health. Those relationships that experience conflicts frequently have been observed to be healthier compared to those relationships without conflicts. In this essay, real communication conflict will be discussed. The essay will include a summary of communication encounter that will be based on John’s reflective model. Also, a critical reflection on significant issues will be done and, ways to overcome similar circumstances in the future. I was admitted in school as an international student. In one of placements that I happened to participate in while in my second year, I had a communication problem with my body nurse (N1). Being an international student, my language of communication is not standard hence communicating with people who are fluent in the language was a bit challenging. This was my first time to work in N1 and the second day in placement. After one hour, N1 requested me to assist her in bed-bathing a patient who had visited the hospital. During the process, another nurse came into the room to see if everything was in order. I left the room to find a basin of warm water among other materials that we required. When I came back, we went ahead to undress the patient only to realize that N1 was not happy. She shouted loudly with an angry tone that there was not enough equipment to continue with the service. Before I even responded, she said loudly that I had to use a face water towel to wash the patient. She continued to say that I had to use common sense since that was not rocket science studies. I was disgusted with these remarks and, I decided to answer her sarcastically by telling her that I am not used to taking showers. I warned her not to ever talk to me in that manner. The other nurse who had entered into the room talked politely to me and, asked me to hurry since the patient was feeling cold. She also requested me to hurry up and bring back the face water towel. After coming back to the room, the second nurse requested me to keep an eye on the other patients since she was going to help N1. According to my own view, the unprofessional communication between me and N1 was brought about by differences in expectations, personality, language and culture. It is crucial to understand ones culture to avoid miscommunication and conflicts that arise from the culture clash (Guillen Nieto, 2006). In addition, there should be power imbalance between a student and the nurse since the assessment by the nurse will determine the performance of the student. The nurse may have bullied me due to imbalance of power. The other factor that may have contributed to the bullying is my lack of know-how and understanding of the new culture and environment. The fact that I was unable to overcome my short temper worsened the situation. As a result, I felt bullied, disrespected, and angry and was even afraid of failing my subject. The patient also lost confidence in me since I was only a student. She developed a feeling that a student is incapable of accomplishing a straightforward task like that. The intensions in my encounter can be summarized into three main points. To start with, did not have any intentions of getting into an argument with the N1 and debate on wrong or right practices according to religion. The second point is that I was highlighting the idea that I never expected the nurse to agree with my practices or personal believes. I never thought that our difference was an issue. The third thing is that I was against disrespect and bullying. There were factors that contributed to the poor communication between me and N1. In my own view, there was a poor first impression between the two of us. There is a saying that explains that there is no second chance for one to make the first impression. The saying illustrates the irreversibility of the judgment process (Deffuant & Huet, 2010). Language difference may also have contributed to the communication barrier since English is not my first language. Other factors include gender, educational and cultural differences (Almost, 2006). Some studies have shown that sex differences contribute to increase in relationship conflict. Task conflict is stimulated by educational differences. Differences in sex occur since individuals get attracted to similar individuals by the assumptions that they share same beliefs. They also assume that it is unproblematic to converse and work with them since they are trustworthy (Almost, 2006). I came up with an assumption that N1 had no intentions of establishing a professional relationship that was based on equality and mutual relationship. When she refused to offer me a chance to react as to why I did not bring the face washer and, asked a rhetorical question I had to reply with a sarcastic answer. After looking back at my reactions, I reacted unprofessionally instead of solving the issue. Since it was my second day at the place, I did not create a reasonable impression with patients and other nurses. This situation affected my learning progress negatively along with experiences, and I never learnt as much as I could have learnt if that scenario had not risen. I completed the placement with an assumption that I would not get a fair assessment and with a fear of failing. According to Albert Einstein, a problem cannot be solved using the same mind or consciousness that generated it (Wind, 2009). A conflict’s historical context should be understood when analyzing a conflict. People who participate in conflicts have influence on the course of the conflict according to history (Mayer, 2008). Conflicts are highly fueled by emotions (Mayer, 2008). Most of the conflicts cannot arise if people maintained staying rationally on how to meet their needs and have effective communication with other people. Also, if people learnt to accommodate others, conflicts would be minimized (Johnson & Phil, 2008). Most of the conflicts are brought about by differences (Brett, Behfar & Kern, 2009). They occur when people disagree on their perceptions, values, motivations, desires or ideas (Neuliep, 2008). These differences may appear to be trivial but, when there is a conflict, strong feelings are triggered. Deep personal needs are placed at the core of the problem; like the need to be secure, respected, safe, and valued (Neuliep, 2008). Health professionals should adopt therapeutic relationships with their fellow colleague and healthcare clients. Therapeutic relationships may need collaboration between parties involved especially in the communication encounter (Hill & Knox, 2009). In my challenging encounter, both of us did not make efforts to solve our differences and come up with a solution. For effective communication to be achieved by health professionals from various cultural backgrounds, they should have knowledge about their cultures and learn to appreciate them (Sarangi, 2009). A demonstration on acceptance and recognition of cultural diversity that exi9st among individuals can help in developing a therapeutic relationship as well as effective communication (Knooerl, Esper & Hasenau, 2011). When there is respect among the health care professionals, differences can be reduced (O’Toole, 2009). When one has unconscious beliefs and values, he or she is likely to develop unconscious stereotypical judgment and biases (O’Toole, 2009). I interpreted the non-verbal and verbal clues to be disrespect and negative attitude towards me. In order to overcome stereotypical judgments, healthy communication should influence the response of other people having different backgrounds (O’Toole, 2009). In a situation where student nurses are in a new environment or situation, they try to understand that particular environment or situation. If these students are given a supportive approach from the staff, they can adopt easily to the new environment. The students can also improve on their knowledge and skills in the field. Preceptors should be chosen cautiously and meet specific requirements according to Elliot, 2011. There should be preceptor ships constructed to respond to various learning needs of the learners. The preceptor ships should also be developed independently from characteristics of learners such as social class, gender and age (Elliot, 2011). In the hospital where I was on placement, the selection of preceptors was limited to the availability instead of ability of the preceptors. The situation was that RNs was chosen as the preceptor since there was no other alternative. It was likely to establish a positive student-preceptor relationship according to Elliot, 2011. A preceptor chosen should have legal and ethical responsibility so that the students do not harm the patients. It is the duty of a preceptor chosen to arbitrate to prevent compromising the security of the patients (Luhanga, Yonge & Myrick, 2008). Contrary, I believe that N1 overreacted in that situation. I never thought that not adding the towel will harm the patients’ safety or health. The way N1 expressed her disappointment in me was unprofessional and inconsiderate. She had an angry facial expression, poor body language, and loud voice. The language she used was aggressive and intimidating. The most crucial skill in an effective communication perhaps is listening. If I was given a chance to clarify why I did not bring the towel, the miscommunication could be evaded. I was thinking that the patient was having his own towel. Students are prone to make mistakes since making mistakes is part of learning. My reactions and attitudes contributed in the escalation of the conflict since it complicated the situation. In most cases, aggressions can be used to control impressions. It can also be used to save the face in response to retaliations and attacks hence aggression can be a vehicle of proving strength or preventing future attacks. A fantastic strategy that was relevant in such a situation was assertiveness. This is a communication strategy which enables an individual to express his or her thoughts, feelings, opinions and beliefs in an open way that does not infringe the rights of other individuals (Martin, 2008). Assertiveness is different from aggressive. Aggressiveness violates the rights and freedoms of others. If it is passive, it makes an individual violate his or her rights and freedom. I did not use assertive technique. If I had used it in this conflict, there could have been better results (Potter, 2007). When the nurse told me that in that hospital they use face towels to wash patients, even if that did not make sense to me, among other things, I responded inappropriately and aggressively instead of being assertive. The action that I could have taken was to bring the face towel and fulfill the task so as to meet the patient needs. If I had done that, there could be no time for thinking about the actions that needed to be taken. Also, I should have asked N1 to talk to me in privately. This is because the room was not the best place for such a discussion. The discussion would have started by the fact that the health center was busy hence time should be well managed. However, I am a student hence I was not perfect. After that, I should have explained to N1 that I thought the patient had his own washing towel. I would have also told her that I did not like the manner in which she commented about my religious practice. In addition to that, I would have asked her to change the way of communication if she was not comfortable being my preceptor. Following this experience, I learnt that self-awareness enables an individual to understand his or her actions and increase the control on the actions and thoughts (Caldwell, 2009). I have also enabled my negative emotions intervene in constructing a positive attitude towards coming up with effective therapeutic relationship and communication. On the other hand, I would have avoided the argument on cultures and believes since it contributed to my negative emotions and attitudes. The other thing I realized was that short temper prevented me from considering miscommunication as a solution. In other words, understanding the mistake was not a solution according to my opinion. I thought about the reasons why N1 got angry instead of coming up with a retaliation to satisfy my ego. The option of remaining nonaggressive and calm during a stressful situation requires self control, strength and practice. Calmness can be an effective strategy meant to reduce tension and create a calm state, which is required to be present before any aggressive behavior (O’Toole, 2009). Individuals can use many calming or relaxing techniques to overcome anger. These techniques include slowly repeating calm remarks such as ‘take it easy’ and ‘relax’ also, deep breathing can be used. Visualization or mental rehearsing of relaxation techniques can be effective in managing anger in real life situation. The truth is that conflicts will be and has been part of individuals in workplaces. Different people deal with conflicts differently. Forgiving one another and giving others a second chance is a crucial skill in life. Accepting that the world is not a perfect location hence people are prone to make mistakes (Lambert & Lambert, 2008). We should let go of resentment and anger. We should also learn not to have negative emotions hence move on with life. In conclusion, the essay has pointed out a real life circumstance of communication conflict. The essay has also taken into account a brief description of a communication encounter which was John’s reflective model. Critical issues have been pointed out in this essay as well as ways of dealing with such a situation in the future. Read More