Communication Style Case Study
Scenario 1
In the first scenario, the writer illustrated an aggressive, passive-aggressive, and passive communications styles. The staff registered nurse (RN), Robin, responded by being aggressive. She was very inappropriate and unprofessional. She raised her voice to tell the assistive personnel, Rashad, in front of his team members that he is only an aide, and his role is just to follow orders. She humiliated and downgraded her team member by conveying a message to him as well as to the rest of the team that assistive personnel are not important part of the interdisciplinary team because they do not need to think but need to do what they are told to do.
Rashad first responded by being passive. He did not say anything to Robin because he was afraid he would lose his job. Rashad’s plan was to make Robin pay for how she behaved by not doing his job until he is told what to do. He was being passive-aggressive. First, Rashad’s silence can be perceived as agreeing with Robin in regards to assistive personnel not being important. Second, by being passive-aggressive and planning on not doing his job will not only get him in trouble but also will jeopardize patient’s health and well-being. He needs to further clarify his job description and assigned duties by talking to Robin and his supervisor.
Scenario 2
In the second scenario, Pamela, the school nurse, was being nonassertive. She was a good nurse by following up on Brigite, a volunteer, and making sure the task was done accurately. When she checked the work that was completed by Brigit, she found errors and knew that the whole task had to be done over. Without further discussing with Brigit, Pamela decided to retest everyone all by herself. Instead, the nurse should have properly communicated about the incident and educated the volunteer while redoing the vision and hearing testing, which moreover would have resulted in additional training. Also, the nurse could have discussed with the volunteer to find out what went wrong and clarify which step of the test was not conducted accurately. To prevent future errors, staff members should be continuously trained and retrained, especially when one makes a mistake. Furthermore, Pamela’s actions and decisions may lead to feeling animosity and anger toward the volunteer. This might also cause the volunteer to have feelings of worthlessness when she finds out that she made a mistake but was not informed of that. According to Hansten and Jackson (2009), “If the nurse reclaims the task and does not offer corrective feedback, the nurse shares responsibility for the delegation problem” (p. 283).
Scenario 3 In the third scenario, the writer illustrated aggressive and assertive communication styles. Rosa, a manager at an ambulatory care surgical center, was being assertive when she relayed her expectations from her team. Mabel, one of the surgical technicians, was aggressive by verbally threatening her manager. She stated that she is not interested in working on any orthopedic cases because it was “too physically stressful” (Hansten & Jackson, 2009, p. 283). Rosa effectively communicated with Mabel by clearly articulating her expectations from the whole team, she was calm and confident. She also mentioned that working on orthopedic related cases was part of Mabel’s job description (Hansten & Jackson, 2009, p. 283); this can be interpreted as Rosa being concise and a confident manager. Mabel’s response to her manager was extremely unprofessional, rude, and aggressive. She verbally attacked her team leader, and stated that her grandfather was the chairman of the board and that she can “get Rosa’s head on the platter” (Hansten & Jackson, 2009, p. 283). Mabel thought that she has power over everyone and being a bully will not get her in any trouble. Managers should be well educated on procedures for dealing with bullies and aggressive employees (“Many bullying policies lack 'teeth,' ineffective,” 2010).