Topic in Health Care Assignment: Communicate And Work Effectively In Health
Introduction
As stated by Peckham (2009), the basic premise on which communication borders is that of getting one’s message of Health Care Services across to the intended receivers as accurately and clearly as possible. Realizing this entails effort on the parts of both the receivers as well senders of a particular message. Communication can be effective only when the sent message is received as intended by the sender as an outcome of the communication.
1. Listing certain types of Information required for executing a Job
As suggested by Thomson and Dixon (2009), for the specific context of personnel working in the sterilizing department that falls under healthcare services, a prospective team member is expected to possess adequate knowledge for effectively communicating with clients. For this, the member has to acquire the necessary information for effectively communicating with existing clients as well as new customers. One requires to be adequately equipped with information resources pertaining to the organisational standards which offers Health Care Services; ethics of the workplace; policies of the workplace sand its code of conduct; norms for work health and safety as well as infection control; resource folders and risk assessment forms.
2. Sources from where the Information can be acquired
| TYPES OF INFORMATION | FROM WHERE? | Written/Verbal ECT |
| Workplace Procedure Manual
and Policy |
Intranet in the Workplace | Both |
| After-hour Contact Numbers
and Time-sheets |
Intranet in the Workplace | Both |
| Organizational Standards and
Code of Conduct |
Within the Organizational
Workplace |
Both |
| Organizational Norms for Work health and Safety, Infection Control | Within the Organization’s Working Environment | Either or Both |
| Resource Folders and Risk Assessment Forms | Workplace Intranet | Both |
| Workplace Ethics | Within the Organization’s Working Environment | Either or Both |
3. Allied Information regarding the Work or Organisational Culture
A host of relevant information and trivia may be imparted to the prospective team member enlightening him or her regarding the salient features or nature of the work expected from them. Organisations are known for Health Care Services to reflect their exclusively unique cultures. The working environment prevailing within the organization is inextricably linked with the organization’s culture. Martin et al. (2010) have stated that there are three integral threads of information with which any new team member must be acquainted:
Organizational Consistency – Refers to the coordination and integration of personnel and their compatibility with the company’s core values and working environment.
Organizational Adaptability – Refers to the initiation of organizational learning, constructive changes and customer focus.
Organizational Involvement – Refers to the incorporation of team orientation, employee empowerment and capability development.
4. Frequency of Workplace Interaction and Implementation of the Generated Ideas
At the organization undertaken for analysis under this assignment – Johnson and Johnson – employees are encouraged to be actively engaged and participate in the workplace conversations. Interfacing via phone or by verbal means enables the company to collect information that may be exploited to monitor the emergent ideas, innovation and employee trends across the company’s varied spectrum. Till date, their operating model performs effectively with four strategic principles of being broadly based in human health care, decentralized in their management approach, managing for the long term and centered upon their values and people (www.johnsonsbaby.co.uk, 2014).
5. Organisation’s Mission and Future Vision
The guiding philosophy at Johnson and Johnson is Our Credo and it encompasses the four major areas pertaining to employees, communities, customers and shareholders. Their Credo is the foundation of the values, ethics and character that are synonymous with Johnson and Johnson. Credo has been incorporated into the company vocabulary ranging from conducting Credo-challenge meetings to Credo surveys and developing Credo-based leaders – multi-dimensional women and men endowed with a broad vision and excellent talents, energy and values required to extract the best out of their employees and achieve outstanding results. The crucial drivers for the company’s future growth relate to creating value through innovation, extending their global accessibility with localised focus and executing goals with excellence and leading with purpose (www.johnsonsbaby.co.uk, 2014).
6. Possibility of the Vision being a Shared Vision
At Johnson and Johnson, the focus is upon managing for the long run in the current highly competitive global marketplace. According to a recent statement made by Alex Gorsky – the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Johnson and Johnson – there are a select few companies that possess the privilege of playing a role in billions of people’s lives every day (johnsonsbaby.co.uk, 2014). This thought has propelled Johnson and Johnson to view their sustainability and citizenship as more than their economic, social and environmental performance. Their vision is a perceivably shared one in the sense that they are committed to participating in solving the world’s major health challenges and Health Care Services, conserving resources that they are privileged to exploit, safeguarding the environment and conducting their business in ways that contribute constructively to society.
7. Open and Closed Questions within Learning Resources
Within the domain of learning resources, the types of questions that may be encountered may be categorised into two types:
Open Questions – An open question may be defined as a question that is most likely to generate a long answer and open questions generally seek relatively longer answers. These questions enable the respondent to reflect and contemplate, give their own feelings and opinions and relay the control of the conversation to the respondent (www.changingminds.org, 2014).
Closed Questions – A closed question may be designated as one which can be answered with a short phrase or single word. These questions are characterised by the dissemination of facts, convenience of response, quickness of response and handing over of the conversational control to the questioner (www.changingminds.org, 2014).
8. Workplace-oriented Networks in Health Care Services
| CUSTOMERS WHO ARE THEY? INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL? | WHAT INFORMATION DO THEY PROVIDE? | WHAT INFORMATION DO YOU PROVIDE THEM? | HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS INFORMATION? |
| Internal=Nurses | The need of the equipment required for the operation theatre | The availability of the required equipment and any delays | Essential |
| Internal=Doctors | Enquiry regarding current status of critical patients | Adequately informing them regarding patients’ latest condition | Essential |
| External=New Mothers/Fathers | Queries regarding the perceived well-being of their newborns | Responding to their queries demonstrating how the newborns are being tended to at regular intervals | Useful |
| External=Other Patients and their Relations | Queries regarding their recovery | Responding to them with adequately detailed reports of their current health condition | Useful |
9. Barriers in the way of Effective Communication
As demonstrated by Thomson and Dixon (2009), it is conventionally believed that most barriers can be solved through effective means of communication. At times, effective communication is thwarted within the working environment owing to several communication barriers. Various environmental set ups, as well as working situations, generate varying degrees of barriers thereby preventing proper and effective communication from being deliberated. These barriers relate to barriers of language, barriers of culture, difference in personality as well as perception as well as physical barriers (Glasby, 2012).
10. Explaining Duty of Care
Duty of care is a pledge to which Johnson and Johnson is intrinsically dedicated. They operate with the principle or caring one person at a time and aspiring to aid billions of people in leading happier, longer and healthier lives. The Johnson and Johnson family of companies has committed itself to caring for the people for more than 125 years till date. This commitment may be recognized as a legacy of its founders and the actual motivating force among their employees (www.johnsonsbaby.co.uk, 2014). This is embodied in their Credo that voices their first responsibility to the patients, doctors, mothers and all others who consume their products.
11. Elucidating on Unethical Conduct
In the workplace, an employer has the right to expect the working personnel to behave in accordance with the company’s policies. Certain breaches in the conduct of employees may be termed as workplace violations. These pertain to the areas of failing to honor commitments, deliberate acts of deception, disregard of the company’s policies,., violation of conscience as well as unlawful conduct. At Johnson and Johnson, ample care is taken to ensure the prevention of any such eventuality. The company also has adequate workplace regulations to redress such untoward situations (Martin et al. 2010).
12. Critically analyzing Culture
Culture relates to an organization’s vision, norms, values, systems, working language, habits, symbols as well as beliefs. In addition to that, it also pertains to the pattern of related collective assumptions and behaviors that are imparted to new organizational members during their orientation phase as a way of experiencing as well as perceiving. An organization’s culture is known to affect the ways in which groups and personnel interact with one another as well as with stakeholders and clients (Davis and Souza, 2009).
Significance of maintaining effective Workplace Communication
According to Zanko and Dawson (2012), in any organization which offers Health Care Services, the working personnel, maintenance and production departments, finance and marketing departments may be imparted direction from the company’s strategic vision and goals, effective communication is responsible for linking them to each other for accelerating organizational success according to Health Care Services. The importance of communicating effectively for the management of an organization cannot be limited to a specified reason since every task executed by the management involves communication in one sphere or another (Martin et al. 2010).
In this direction, communication is vital for enhancing employee efficiency, customer satisfaction, developing innovative products and services and improvisation of quality. Effective communication is of such paramount importance for attaining organizational success that not only the management but also the company’s employees ought to be effective communicators. The management can play an instrumental role in enabling the employees to improvise on their communication skills. When almost all the organizational members are capable of communicating effectively with one another as well as with people outside the organizations, it leads to an enhanced company performance and productivity (Mays and Lurie, 2009).
Conclusion
Every enterprise including the health sector is built upon the premise of effective communication since it is an integral aspect for the proper functioning of every segment of the organization. For any new organizational member, honing communication skills is the key to fostering better Health Care Services and communication at all levels of the organizational framework.