Reference no: EM132226888

Question: You are the nursing supervisor of an assisted living facility (ALF). Recently you have received multiple complaints from several residents about the lack of assistance and care they receive from one of the day shift nursing assistants (NAs). You are surprised because this NA received the "Employee of Year" award just last year. As the nursing supervisor, you must approach and discuss these complaints with the NA.

Related question 1: Nonverbal communication is very powerful.

a) Identify at least four types of nonverbal communication.

b) Describe how your nonverbal behavior should be congruent with your verbal communication in this scenario.

Related question 2: Explain how you will communicate effectively with the NA who is a different gender than yourself.

Respond to two classmates.

The communication process is indicated as "the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information by speech, signals, writing or behavior." (Marquis & Huston 2017). Nonverbal cues fall under the umbrella of behavior pertaining to communication. Facial expressions, physical contact, gestures, and head or body movements are all various forms of nonverbal communication. Because nonverbal communication is extremely powerful, it remains one of the main culprits in creating disputes or verbal altercations. One effective way to improve nonverbal communication is to "manage stress better and develop your emotional awareness" (Segal, Smith, Robinson, & Boose 2018). This is the importance of congruency between nonverbal cues and verbal communication. What one feels on the inside, may not be communicated appropriately to another individual outwardly.

There are two main concepts that come into play when communicating with anyone regardless of an individual's gender or position in a work environment. Those concepts are respect and dignity. In the scenario of having to communicate with a NA whose gender is different from mine, I would practice these same core concepts.

Communication is defined as "the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, by speech, signals, writing, or behavior", and can be broken into two parts-verbal and nonverbal (Marquis & Houston 2015). The mode of communication is critical to the perception of the message so picking the right mode of communication is very important. Most of the time people will believe nonverbal clues over verbal communication when the body language does not match the message. There are several types of nonverbal communication including space, eye contact, posture, and facial expression and timing. Ineffective communication is a common cause of conflict (Henry 2016). As the nursing supervisor, I would need to maintain composure verbally and non-verbally and be professional, direct, and honest with the nursing assistant. This is called assertive communication and the goal for me would be to get the message across clearly without bringing tension to any supervisor-staff-client relationships.

Communicating effectively with the anyone different than yourself always starts with respect, but men and women do communicate differently. In healthcare, women usually do not have administrative positions. Marquis & Houston state "differences in gender, power, and status significantly affect the types and quality of organizational and unit-level communication (2015)." When talking to the NA, stay objective and assertive but give the NA his opportunity to communicate as well. Open communication, good interpersonal communication, and assertive communication are all aspects needed to communicate effectively as a nursing supervisor in this situation.