Lady Taylor PhD: Re-Do Week 3

Running head: COMMUNICATIONS SKILL ASSESSMENT 0

Communications Skill Assessment

Name

Institution

Communications Skill Assessment

Communication is an integral part of the life of any person regardless of their occupation. The ability to engage in effective communication either in writing, visual or oral communication serves as the basis for success in all the things a person does in life. For an individual, it is important to identify the strengths in communication and focus on maximizing these strengths while improving the weaker areas. In order to improve one’s weaknesses and maximize on the strengths in communication, it is imperative to develop and assess individual communication skills (Arnold, & Boggs, 2015). This ensures that one is able to learn how to recognize, adapt, and utilize individual communication skills effectively and with confidence given the different contexts and situations that one faces. Through such an assessment, one is able to identify the actual and would-be communication challenges that may occur, which in turn ensures that they are able to develop strategies to diagnose these problems or communication gaps.

In assessing my personal communication skills, a self-analysis observational approach is used to determine my strengths and weaknesses in communication. Using the approach I can be able to determine my strengths in communication and determine the areas that require an action plan, close monitoring, or improvement (Arnold, & Boggs, 2015). The self-analysis observational approach ensures that I can assess and observe my communication behaviors without obtrusion during the various situations where I am required to demonstrate my effectiveness in communication. This helps in assessing and determining the ability to achieve a particular objective while communicating with other people such as persuasion and convincing a listener to adopt my ideas. Working as a medical technician in the military requires that one develop effective skills in communication to ensure that one can communicate effectively with the patients, especially during emergency conditions (Robinson, Segal, & Smith, 2016).

As an individual, I have realized that I have some communication gaps that need to be addressed in order to improve my performance in my profession both in written and spoken communication. Key among these communication gaps are observable behaviors in listening, verbal, and written communication. In listening, I have realized that I tend to provide inappropriate non-verbal responses to the patients in response to their statement while at times I may use jargon without clarifying to the patients. In addition, I have the tendency to do other things while the patient continues to speak, which may seem like am ignoring them. On the verbal communication, I tend to interrupt and use language skills that could irritate the listeners. Additionally, I have the tendency to use abbreviations in writing, which is inappropriate given some situations in my profession (Riley, 2015).

Effective communication verbal or visual communication ensures that the ideas and vies of a person can be expressed with clarity, confidence, and succinctly in their speech. The person communicating achieves this by being able to tailor their content and the communication style to suit the targeted audience and enhance the free-flow of communication. In order to eliminate the communication gaps, it is important for a person to ensure that they are able to communicate clearly and concisely through tonal variation, adjusting the pace and pitch in order to enhance communication and the attention of the listeners (Yoo, & Park, 2015). Persuasion and negotiation helps arrive at an agreeable position for all the parties during a given situation. In addition, it is important to ensure that a person is able to make a speech in front of the audience in an interesting, structured, and effective manner. Such effectiveness can be attained by developing effective listening skills, since it is a vital element in communication. By addressing these communication barriers, I will be able to achieve success and advancement in my profession as a medical technician in the Air Force.

References

Arnold, E. C., & Boggs, K. U. (2015). Interpersonal relationships: Professional communication skills for nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Riley, J. B. (2015). Communication in nursing. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Robinson, L., Segal, J., & Smith, M. (2016). Effective communication: Improving communication skills in your work and personal relationships.

Yoo, M. S., & Park, H. R. (2015). Effects of case‐based learning on communication skills, problem‐solving ability, and learning motivation in nursing students. Nursing & health sciences, 17(2), 166-172.