A bee can communicate with the rest of the hive by doing what scientists call the “Waggle Dance”. Communication is extremely important for the hive to be able to locate food and water sources or even a new nest site. The preciseness of the waggle dance is impressive, and all the sister bees can understand the directions.
Do we as professional healthcare workers fall short on our communication skills? While we can’t do a waggle dance (maybe then our co-workers would listen) there are effective communication skills we can use.
1. Closed Loop Communication
This type of communication is used to prevent miscommunication and missteps. It is such an important type of communication that the American Heart Association incorporated it into their certification for BLS. Closed loop communication is where the receiver repeats back to the sender to confirm the message was heard correctly. I used this communication a lot when communicating with the surgeons at work to verify their schedule or add on cases.
2. Follow up
How many times have we sent a problem to a boss or charge nurse either in person or email and never got a reply? We become disgruntled and complain that no one is listening to us, when all it would take is a simple reply stating, “that problem has been addressed”. A lot of times we don’t need to know what the final verdict is, only that it has been managed correctly.
3. “Don’t shoot the messenger!”
As nurses we constantly can feel like we are the messenger! We communicate between doctors, colleagues, patients, and family. If the message is well received then no problem, right? But if it isn’t what they wanted to hear then we are on the front line.
In the healthcare field communication is extremely important. Our coworkers, patients and their families depend on reliable and effective communication. Improving communication through standard methods can create a sweet not sticky environment.