Assignment 1. Task 1 PDF

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Unit 1 Task 1 The communication cycle is based on Michael Argyle’s theory of receiving, sending and making sense of messages. Communication has a purpose of getting your particular message across to others clearly and unambiguously and by doing this it involves a lot of effort from both the receiver of the message and the sender. If communication is vague, unclear and unfocused it can result in poor quality of care and stress for both you, as a nurse, along with those on the receiving line, which are often the patients you are treating. If you handover a patient to another nurse and relay all information in an unclear and vague manner this can cause problems which in turn results in poor care quality and can, consequently, lead to the patient receiving the wrong treatment. Michael Argyle’s theory of the communication cycle shows that communication is a two way process of expression and interpretation. It is two ways due the need to check that ideas have been understood, with good communication involving checking, understanding and reflective listening. Argyle’s theory has six stages; it starts with the aim and idea occurring, the message being coded and composed, the message being sent, the message being received, the message that was received being decoded and analysed and finally making an improvement from the feedback given,

STEP 1: The first step of the cycle is the aim. The aim needs to be thought about before composing the message so you as the individual can begin to know the response they would like. STEP 2: Composing the message before it’s sent is an important stage. You must make sure that you compose your message in a way that the receiver is going to understand, making sure that you have spelt everything correctly and that it makes sense. The receiver needs to be able to understand the message and so therefore checking your message once it is composed is key.

Unit 1 Task 1 STEP 3: Transmitting the message once it has been composed is the third stage of Argyle’s 6 stage cycle. When you transmit the message you must ensure that you have sent it to the correct person. Mistakes can happen and therefore if you mean to send your message to another nurse but accidently send it to a doctor within your workplace this can cause confusion along with the message not being received to the individual it’s meant to be sent to. Meaning the message in question cannot be responded to because it did not get to the recipient in question. STEP 4 & 5: Step 4 and 5 almost come together as a pair. Step 4 is when the message has been received and step 5 is the message being decoded and analysed. When the message has been received, hopefully on time and in the correct form to the correct person, the message must be decoded and analysed. Communication can break down at this stage due to the individual not, potentially, understanding what the message is about. The individual must attempt to de code the message and interpret it in their own way in order for them to respond. However their response, if they do not understand, may be that they need a bit of help knowing what the message is about. STEP 6: You as the sender will receive feedback from the person you have sent it to, whether that is a letter to a patient, an email to another nurse or doctor, or any other professional or individual in question. This feedback can be both positive and negative, if it is negative this can mean you may have to make improvements to your message and resend it to the receiver in a way that will be effective and that they will understand. However, hopefully your message will be effective in which case the message was understood and, if a task was asked, it was carried out efficiently. In this case the 6 stage communication cycle will start again.

As nurses you can make the communication cycle effective by ensuring you get your point across to others without the misunderstanding and confusion that could potentially cause problems. Your goal should be to reduce the regularity of barriers and problems at the stage of your original idea occurring and the coding and sending of the message so you produce an effective way of communicating with your individual with your communication being clear, concise, accurate and well planned. You can also be an effective communicator by establishing your credibility within your hospital workplace and display knowledge about what you are talking about with appropriate verbal and non verbal behaviour. You must also know who you are talking to, whether that is to a fellow nurse, a doctor, a patient or another member of staff in order to know how to deliver your message, as failure to understand who

Unit 1 Task 1 you’re communicating with may result in delivering message in a way that is not understood. If you are clear and concise you reduce the barriers causing communication to be effective. All stages can work well if planned effectively and efficiently, however from time to time things may go wrong, especially in the process of the message being coded to the message being received. With message made unclear the receiver may not understand what exactly you are trying to say and therefore can cause a barrier. You can overcome this though by re wording your message. Stages can also go wrong with communication if you are trying to communicate with patients in your care. They may misinterpret what you have said or may not understand due to reasons such as being deaf. If you find yourself in this situation you can overcome it by making sure your patient receives the best possible care and is informed about this in a way that they will understand, such as bringing in an interpreter for those who do not speak English or are deaf and can perform BSL (British Sign Language). The communication cycle is best used formally within a one to one context. This being you, as a health care professional, communicating with the individual you are caring for in a professional manner. It is best used in this way because most planning goes into a formal conversation, especially when having a one to one conversation in which you are giving news and information. Using it on a one to one basis is also best as it gives you opportunity to ensure the individual fully understands without other interruptions for other professionals or patients. It also gives you a chance to allow for improvements or explain yourself if someone misunderstands. Argyle’s theory has various strengths. It clearly explains the process of the communication cycle and therefore informs you of how you should have good communication and listening skills when working in your health care profession; that being the hospital. Another strength is that it helps understand your patient that you are treating clearly, and vice versa. It means you have to carefully think how you are going to communicate with your patient, thinking before you speak. This means that you know the message is not misunderstood and shows that you are a reflective listening, kind and caring nurse delivering, sometimes heartfelt messages in a way that isn’t classed as ruthless. However with strengths come weaknesses of course. A weakness of Argyles communication cycle is that it advertises that communication should be the most important part of the service when really establishing a relationship with the individual first and becoming someone whom they can really trust and open up to is a much larger quality as beginning to build relationships with individuals is the first part of beginning with communication skills. So really comes hand in hand. Another weakness is that it doesn’t really consider barriers within communication. This can be for reasons such as English not being the first language or the individual

Unit 1 Task 1 having impairments. This can impact both you as the service provider as well as the service user. This is because it can make your job as a nurse a lot longer due to you having to find someone to help with the communication and it can be distressing for the service user too as they won’t know what is going on as soon as they may like....