Reflective reports Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Reflective reports - Essay Example Since that time, I learnt to improve my communication skills through several means. In most of the cases however, my learning in communication happened on the job. This means that different work situations presented different ways in which I had to approach communication. For example there was one time when a 46-year-old female was transported in her bed to the Minor Injury Unit at Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, as the physician requested a lumbar spine X-ray for her after she fell down the stairs. The radiographer and I had difficulty communicating with the patient because she has aphasia, which is defined as a loss of language function and which is a result of injury to the language centres in the brain (Ehrlich and Coakes 2013). Before I started positioning the patient for the lumbar spine X-ray procedure, I asked the nurse who accompanied her about the way that she communicated with the patient. The nurse revealed that the patient was able to read and write and so she wrote what she wanted to say to the patient on a piece of paper and gave it to her so she could read it. Based on this, I brought a piece of paper with me and wrote down what would happen during the procedure as well as some instructions for the patient. I then gave her the piece of paper so she could read what I wrote. The patient read what I gave her and she wrote that she understood what I was trying to tell her and she felt more comfortable after having received this written explanation. As a result of this communication, we successfully carried out the examination. Alder and Carlton (2010) and Watkins (2001) note that good communication and compassionate care also have a great impact on the practitioner. In radiography, good communication with the patient helps him/her understand what the radiographer is expecting from him/her during the procedure, which will