Self-Reflection in Communication

Intro

Effective healthcare communication has beneficial effects on patients including decreased pain and anxiety, increased satisfaction, improved vital signs and treatment outcome and increased participation in interventions.In a successful two-way dialogue between provider and patient, both parties speak and are listened to without interruptions, asking questions for clarify. Both parties should feel they are able to exchange information while expressing their opinions.

Since patient-centered communication can facilitate positive health outcomes, provider be responsive and individualised to patient health concerns. Providers must be mindful of the barriers that different values and beliefs can cause to patient communication.

Values

Values are described as context-independent, abstract and steady goals which people strive to achieve in life. They guide peoples' perception, behaviour and attitudes and represent positive end-states. They are distinct from from norms, attitudes and beliefs but are related. Values are relatively stable through the lifespan, context and situations but do have the ability to change.

10 Basic Values

The Theory of Basic Human Values identifies 10 basic values that are each characterised by a different motivational goal.

1. power: dominance over resources and people, social status
2. achievement: own personal success according to social standards
3. hedonism: gratification or pleasure for oneself
4. stimulation: novelty, challenge or excitement
5. self-direction: independence in action and thought
6. universalism: welfare, understanding and concern for all people and nature, tolerance
7. benevolence: enhancing the welfare of people whom one is close
8. tradition: commitment and respect to religious or cultural ideas
9. conformity: restraint of actions that may harm others or violate social expectations
10. security: stability and safety of relationships, self and society

Relationship of Values

Among these 10 values, there are two-dimensional structures that can re

The relationships among values can also be summarised in terms of a two-dimensional structure [10,16]. The first dimension contrasts conservation values, which emphasise self-restraint, the preservation of traditional practices, and safeguarding stability, to openness to change values, which emphasise the relevance of change, independence, and freedom. The second dimension captures the conflict between self-enhancement values, which emphasise the pursuit of one’s own interests and relative success and dominance over others, to self-transcendence values, which emphasise concern for the welfare and interests of others. Moreover, Schwartz [17] categorised these value dimensions based on their focus (personal vs. social) and their orientation (self-protective vs. self-expansive). Accordingly, self-enhancement and openness to change values share a personal focus, while self-transcendence and conservation values share a social focus. Finally, conservation and self-enhancement are labelled self-protective values because they are, respectively, oriented to avoiding conflicts and maintaining the social order or oriented to actively control others and situations. On the contrary, openness to change and self-transcendence are labelled self-expansive values because they express anxiety-free motivations, promoting a flourished growth

Beliefs

While values capture what people consider as important, beliefs capture what people consider to be true.alues determine what goals to pursue, while beliefs determine how to pursue the respective goals

key element of essentialist beliefs is that they offer a causal explanation for observed behavior and perceived individual differences: People are who they are because of some determining factor rooted somehow deep insid. essentialist beliefs are associated with specific cognitive and behavioral tendencies such stereotyping and prejudice (

Self-Reflection

The art of reflection encourages the person to search for and evaluate solutions in equivocal and complicated situations.10 The experience of utilizing the reflection process in a clinical setting causes a sense of ownership towards the created knowledge in nurses, because they achieve this knowledge through focusing on their own experience, using creative methods.11 The process of reflection starts when the person refers to his/her own experience and recollects what has occurred, reconsiders the experience, and reevaluates it.12 This effective strategy also improves critical thinking and problem-solving skills in nurses.13 Reflection is regarded as a proof of professionalism and is used as a skill related to clinical performance and professional behavior.14 Reflective thinking in recent years has been considered as a learning strategy for nursing students while not being used by novice nurses in practice.15 Studies have suggested that reflective thinking as a skill should be learned and used continuously.16,17 In general, nurses should know how to have reflection on their clinical performance and practice it re

Reflective Practice	Consideration
How are you feeling?	Nurses are not exempt from life circumstances that can cause uncomfortable emotions like sadness, anger, frustration, as well as other emotions such as happiness and gratefulness. While it may be impossible to put aside your emotions, having a sense of your emotions and their cause is a very powerful tool to avoid inadvertent miscommunication.
What is occupying your thoughts?	It can be helpful to step outside of the narrative in your mind. It is not abnormal for a thought to pervade your thinking, but suspending such thoughts and being in the moment with the client can assist with better communication. Consider if something is weighing on you. Are you ruminating about an event, a person, an idea?
In what ways are you physically expressing your emotions and thoughts?	Your emotions and thoughts are sometimes physically expressed through facial expressions, hand gestures, and body language. Can someone tell that you are happy or sad by looking at you? Being aware of the physical expression of your emotions and thoughts can assist you in your communication with others and enable you to convey emotions like empathy, compassion, and concern.
How is your health and wellbeing?	Often physiological and psychological/emotional events like hunger, fatigue, body aches, and sadness can shape your mood. Reflect on how you are feeling in relation to your body and mind and pay attention to your body’s cues.
What is the environment surrounding you?	Even when you think you are accustomed to the work environment, subtle triggers can affect your ability to effectively communicate. A beeping machine, foul smell, or bright lights may affect your ability to focus, show concern, and actively listen. Reflect on yourself in relation to the environment and consider what factors you can and cannot control.

reflection enables a personal insight into the communication process and highlights the inherent challenges of communication and their pertinence to patient care and clinical practice outcomes. Reflection is a process of exploring and examining ourselves, our perspectives, attributes, experiences, and actions and interactions, which helps us gain insight and see how to move forward (Gillett et al, 2009:164). Reflection is a cycle (Figure 1; Gibbs, 1988), which, in nursing, enables the individual to consciously think about an activity or incident, and consider what was positive or challenging and, if appropriate, plan how a similar activity might be enhanced, improved or done differently in the future (Royal College of Nursing (RCN), 2019). Reflective practice is the ability to reflect on one's actions and experiences so as to engage in a process of continuous learning (Oelofsen, 2012), while enhancing clinical knowledge and expertise (Caldwell and Grobbel, 2013). A key rationale for reflective practice is that experience alone does not necessarily lead to learning—as depicted by Gibbs' reflective cycle (1988). Deliberate reflection on experience, emotions, actions and responses is essential to informing the individual's existing knowledge base and in ensuring a higher level of understanding (Paterson and Chapman, 2013). Reflection on practice is a key skill for nurses—it enables them to identify problems and concerns in work situations and in so doing, to make sense of them and to make contextually appropriate chang

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Ponizovskiy V, Grigoryan L, Kühnen U, Boehnke K. Social construction of the value–behavior relation. Frontiers in Psychology. 2019 May 1;10:934.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6504687/

Gamage KA, Dehideniya DM, Ekanayake SY. The role of personal values in learning approaches and student achievements. Behavioral sciences. 2021 Jul 16;11(7):102.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/11/7/102/htm