Solving Communication Problems: Reflective Essay

Problems are at the center of which every day many people deal at their work. I got a chance to deal with a problematic event when I was on my shift, I was assigned with the client who was living with his family. My core responsibilities are to assist client in bath and in her daily living activities but the client want me to do house work and she want to take help from her daughter for the bath. The problem with this scenario is as per my job expectation I must assist client in all of her activities in order to make sure that the care she is receiving is safe and comfortable but my client is expecting from me to do more of the house work like vacuum, dust and wash the floor so that she will not feel like a burden on her son. The area for which she asked me to do housekeeping is mostly used by other family members. When I contact my supervisor, she advises me that my agency does not have a strict definition of light housekeeping but if I took any additional time to complete the work she cannot give me any extra wages for the additional time spend on the shift. So, I decided to solve this problem through problem solving process and I identify that the situation I am going through will affects me and my client because if I say no to my client it makes her upset and might be noncooperative with me which in future become a barrier in my communication level with the client as well as hinders in developing a therapeutic relationship with the client. If I say yes, then might be I will have required additional time and energy for it. Moreover, I will not be getting any extra wages for extra time.

The situation will definitely make me concerned firstly, because the client want to take help from her daughter for her bath and I am not sure about the daughter willingness to give her bath furthermore, I am not sure if the daughter knows the skills, knowledge and techniques to give a safe and comfortable bath to the client. The time of the client bath may be a good time to do lot more observation and encouragement to make client independent as much as possible. The health care personals are well trained in performing that observations and encouragement. Client assessment starts from the scalp and proceed to the feet for any kind of abnormal skin condition, any lesions, swelling or any sign of altered circulation and then based upon that assessment appropriate interventions were planned. There is a lot more chances that the client daughter fail to do significant observations during the bath and missed any changes which risk the client health. My second concern is about client thoughts that she doesn’t want to feel like burden on her son so need to rule out the reasons behind it. The third concern is if I say yes to client for doing housekeeping then it will affect one of my social determinant of health that is employment and working condition. Intense working conditions and excessive hour of work cause me bodily pain, increase chances of injury and other physiological and psychological symptoms which ultimately affects my personal relationships. My client rather than asking her family members to do their home housekeeping she is asking me to do for her give me the impression that my client health determinant of social environment is also affected. Because of all these reasons I feel that the situation requires immediate attention to resolve the issue.

I analyze the scenario and identify that the situation highlights the unknown, need to be identified problem where interventions are required to resolve the problem. The situation also highlights the affective problem where person emotions are significantly involved so my decision of saying no for housework to the client will greatly affect her emotions. According to Chaudhuri, A. (2014). A person job should be such that he/she can maintained a balance between important aspects of life. A person work should not increase stress level and he/she able to spend quality of time with family after job hours. On my end the scenario also highlights the work-related problem because my decision of saying yes hinders me in balancing my work and my family life.  Moreover, I also feel that there is an interpersonal communication gap between people involved in the scenario that are my client and her family members so, further digging is required in order to rule out the root causes of the problem.

I will start handling the problem on my end by maintaining all the behavioral characteristics of communication and use the assertive style to reply my client. I will reply “I can see that this is important to you, and it is also important to me as well. I am assigned here to deliver you as much as support but there are certain things which I cannot do such as vacuum, dusting of most of the area use by other family members. I understand that this will make you upset but we can talk more respectfully to each other to make the situation better for both of us. I appreciate if you discuss with me about what bothers you for not asking your family members to do the housekeeping of the house this will help me to resolve your problem”. In this way, both of us maintained the respect and there is fewer chances of emotional outburst.

I will further analyze the problem by asking questions from client about her family members to understand her family dynamics. I will ask the client about the education of her daughter to identify her literacy level, this will help me in understanding what level of teaching and information I need to deliver the daughter so that she can maintain safety of client during bath. I will ask the routine of her daughter to rule out her availability and willingness to give bath to the client. Moreover, I will ask client what kind of relationship other family members are having with my client and with each other, how frequently they sit together and spend time with each other, if my client want to share anything who is the most reliable person in the family with my client feel to share her problems and feelings this will help me understanding the social environment of the house. Additionally, I will ask client their source of income to identify the economic status of the family which will help me in sharing the option of hiring a housekeeper for few hours to do house work.

I will develop an action plan to solve the problem by identifying several client needs for example as I was newly assigned staff with the client so she will be feeling anxious and worry working with me. In addition to it she is also facing difficulty communicating her true feelings and concerns with her other family members. There is also a need of division of household task among family members or need to hire any part time housekeeper for vacuum, dust and washing the floor. Besides, my client’s daughter also need teaching about proper techniques of giving safe bath to the client.

According to me the first priority is to reduce my client anxiety and apprehensions by properly orienting myself and my role, remain be calm and answer questions about the information which my client needed. This will create a positive significance and help in reassuring client that I am here to help her. In this way, my client move from negative emotional level to positive level and she feel comfortable and ready to work with health care member. My second priority is my client should get safe bath. My client want to take bath from her daughter so I will respect her decision and to complete this priority I will ask my client daughter if she is willing to give bath or not, if she is willing then I will have taught her all the safe techniques to be followed, and observation made about the client body for any kind of health-related issues during the bath. After teaching I, will supervise the daughter giving bath to my client to observe whether she is following the right techniques and provide feedback upon it. This will positively help in preventing my client from any health-related complications. My third priority will be to enhance communication among the family members. I will achieve this priority by focusing on my client by asking her questions about her children and other aspects of their personal lives, this give her message that I am interested in her as a people rather than as a client. Furthermore, encourage my client and her family members to be open to discuss issues, problems, thoughts and feelings with respect, love and trust. Spend quality time together so family relations become stronger and good communication will be enhanced among family members. They should equally and properly divide house work among each family members so burden will not be upon one member of the family. The positive consequence of good communication among family will help to efficiently cope with life challenges.

I have chosen the above action plan because by doing proper assessment and observation during bath will help in early identification of health-related conditions and early consultation to the physicians, in this way my client physical health will be enhanced. By developing therapeutic relationship with client help client to adjust with change that is working with a new staff will enhance her emotional health. Additionally, good communication among family will also enhance emotional and social health by allowing self to cope with stress, help in learning, managing conditions and live in harmony. Mine occupational health will also be improved as I will get manageable work load.

I will be evaluating my action plan by monitoring and discussing feedback with my client about the effectiveness of strategies that are discussed with the client and family members and their satisfaction level upon it. I will do conclusion by evaluating myself that what I have accomplished at the end and how this experience of solving problem develop me professionally. After resolving the scenario, I will report back to my supervisor about all the efforts that I have made to resolve the issues so that she can guide me about what I have done good and which aspects will be done differently in future. I will use my communication skills of pumping the negatives and owning to ask more about negative feedback which will give me more opportunity in order to modify my behaviors in future.

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