Reflection Competency in Communication Skills

This reflective essay is based on my experience as a health care assistant in the operative theatre working as a circulating nurse for a vascular access list. It will also highlight the important aspect of communication within the theatre practitioners when working with patients who are under local or general anaesthetic. I will explore a critical incident and also reflect on my own personal experience. I aim to use this experience to bring out the different forms of communication, the potential barriers of communication and its consequences in the clinical setting. Gibbs Reflective model (1988) is what I have chosen to guide my reflective process, as it incorporates the stages of
Both verbal and nonverbal communication is paramount in the operating theatre and one way of communicating as a team is through the WHO Checklist. The WHO surgical safety checklist was provided as a mandatory guideline and a systematic documentation tool to follow when signing in patient for surgery. The `time out’ and the `sign-in’ checklist was provided as a mandatory guideline and a systematic documentation tool to follow when signing in patient for surgery. The `time out’ follows the `sign-in’ section and it includes the surgeon, anaesthetist, and other theatre practitioner to verbally confirm the patient’s name, procedure, site and position, risks, consent form, patient’s allergy and any specific concern. I think that the patient’s broken shoulder is one of the specific concerns here; unfortunately, it was not mentioned by the anaesthetic practitioner.
The barriers in communication that I discovered are the presence of both internal and external noise. These noises were described by Taylor and Campbell (1999) as physiological or psychological state that can obstruct a person’s ability to communicate. In the operating room noises are from the anaesthetic machine, suctions, loud music and other environment factors which affect the concentration of the whole team (Plowes 1999). Another barrier of communication is assumptions and jumping to conclusion