Working with Other Professionals - Essay Example

Working with Other Professionals This year, I was able to work with from other health and social care professions. I experienced working in groups and learned about the qualities that make a good doctor. This experience has allowed me to reflect on my future role as a professional. The sessions involved for the group to have a meeting once a week. It involved a scenario, in which we had to find a solution to the problem. In the end, we made posters, which we presented to other students. In the sessions, I got to know these people and, in the short time I spent with them, I learned how to put my trust on their abilities as well. I realized that this would be very important in the future as I may have to deal with patients who will have more needs than what one professional can provide. It would then be important to me that I will be able to refer such patients to someone that I can trust, and someone that I am sure will treat the patient with as much care as I would. It would also be possible that the patient undergo treatment requiring professionals from different fields at the same time. Thus, it is important that these professionals be able to collaborate in order for the overall treatment of the patient to be effective. Perhaps one of the most important things that I learned in collaborating with other students is that I have to communicate effectively with them. At first, I thought communication was just a small, easy thing to do. But in reality, that was not the case. There is a big difference between just saying what I want, and making others listen. There are a lot of barriers to communication that professionals have to overcome. When I think about the implications of this for the future, I realized that a small miscommunication or even the lack of it could greatly reduce the effectiveness of a treatment. It could mean the success or failure of treating the patient. I believe that for the treatment to work out, effective communication has to be made on a frequent basis. Each of the professionals taking part in the treatment should be updated as to the progress of the treatment done by the other professionals. If possible, regular meetings should be held. If not, communication can be done through the telephone, the internet, or through communication books or diaries. I realized that it is not enough to rely on my own knowledge. I’ve already learned a lot, but there is still much to learn and I am only seeing one side of the picture. With the help of other professionals, however, my lack of knowledge in some areas can be compensated for. There are problems that can be solved by a single professional, but there are bigger problems that need more people to work on it. Problems are also more easily solved when more professionals work on it, especially if the skills of the professionals complement each other well. It may not be easy to understand some things when working with people of other professions. But an effort has to be made so that the important details can be communicated effectively to everyone on the team. With the different trainings that each person has undergone, there will be differences in priorities and concerns. But all these priorities and concerns have to be taken into account so that the team can see the overall picture. Listening is very important, not only because it will help me to understand what others are saying, but also because it will encourage the other members of the team to express their thoughts. Being a good listener gives others the confidence to share more of their thoughts. If everyone was just focusing on expressing their ideas at the cost of interrupting other people, then it would be hard for the team to collaborate. There are issues that one can encounter since everyone has different opinions and different attitudes. Being able to adjust to the people and to the situation is very important here. For the collaboration to work out, it is important to be agreeable. Keeping criticisms to a minimum would be a good idea, however, it is important to be critical in examining each and every aspect in the process of solving the problem. In expressing my ideas, I have to make sure that I put it in understandable terms. I have to communicate it in a way that will be acceptable to the people in the group. That is not to say that I should just keep quiet if I think that they won’t listen to my opinion. Rather, I am saying that the same message that they aren’t agreeable to, when said in a different way, can become something that everyone is agreeable to. I guess this skill is more of an art than a science, but it is something that I will need to develop further. This experience has been very rewarding for me. The things I learned here can’t be learned just from reading books or listening to classes. I learned how to become an agreeable person in dealing with other people. I was able to develop my social skills. I have begun to appreciate how to effectively communicate my concerns and my thoughts, while listening to the concerns of other professionals. It has been refreshing that we did a different set of activities and developed a different set of skills. I have learned to trust other people who are as devoted in doing the best to solve the problem. I have learned to rely on other people’s judgment. In the future, I see myself being able to work with other professionals well. There’s still a lot of aspects in my own personality that I can still improve in order to work better with other people. I’m looking forward to having more chances to work with other people to develop my communication and collaboration skills. In conclusion, I believe that it is very important to teach healthcare professionals how to develop their communication and collaboration skills. It doesn’t mean that if you are a professional then you are already a master of communication and collaboration. The skill sets are totally different from what is just learned from books or courses. Being an agreeable person, being able to communicate effectively, and the ability to listen to others in the group are key qualities for the collaboration to be successful. Of course, it is a must that one is well versed in ones own profession. Being able to think critically and examine everything is also very important. We must always take into account that medicine is not an exact science. One method applied to a patient may not be as effective when applied to another patient. This is because each patient is different. Thus, we, as health and social care professionals must always think on a patient to patient basis, and study the unique situation of each. Read More