Interview: An Interview With A Registered Nurse

Maggie Harrison
For this interview I chose my sister Kelly Harrison. She works at KU pediatric office in Kansas City. Her position in this company is a registered nurse. In this position she is responsible for assessing vitals on patients before they see the doctor. She will ask the patients what medications they are on and the reason for their visit. Kelly also collects specimens to be tested and sends them to the lab. The way she communicates with her patients and families with any questions is by telephone calls. In her workforce she has around 150 employees. Her contact information is 913-961-6523 and her email is [e-mail].
In a job setting it is always important to have an effective communication with others you work
with. Kelly communicates with her doctor she works with before each patient to inform him of the needs of the patient that day. She also speaks with other nurses to see how their clinic is flowing and if they need any assistance when she is free and not too busy. Like I mentioned before the way she communicates with patient and their families is through the phone calls. If she is not working with her doctor on a particular day and they are preparing for clinic, they will communicate through email. Kelly described her communication in her work group by task related and formal when speaking about patients and diagnoses. Other communication between the managers and the staff about clinic flow and work schedules is more informal and often done through email or quick conversations. The most challenges kind of communication she faces is when the person she needs to speak with is not present. Her clinic has two locations and sometimes the doctor Kelly works with is at the different location that she is at. It is much easier for her to discuss a patient in person than it is to try to hunt down her doctor to ask him questions. She communicates through email and if needed will communicate through the telephone to overcome this barrier. In Kelly’s workplace conflict is manifested when other people do not want to help out others. People do not like to see someone sitting and surfing the Internet or making personal calls when they are the ones running around like crazy. To deal with this problem is to just asking the other person if they are busy and if they would help Kelly out to get caught up. Most of the time, if the person is not really busy, then they will step up and give the help you need.
The thing that motivates Kelly to work is the well being of her patients.
Making sure her patients get the proper treatments, medications and referrals so that they can be healthy and make their lives better. Kelly describes meaningfulness as making sure that the needs of her patients are fully taken care of. In order for this to happen, she has to have good communication with her providers, fellow nurses, patient service representatives and the patents themselves. Kelly also says her co-workers contribute to meaningfulness in many ways. The other nurses may help her room a patient or aid her with a blood draw or obtain specimens when she is busy. Also the patient service representatives help schedule the patients to make sure they have appointments and will schedule with other doctors if referrals are needed. They can be distracting if they are not busy and start having conversations when Kelly is busy and doesn’t have time to talk. The way Kelly would change her situation to have more meaningfulness at her work is by having her co-workers ask more often how others are doing and if they need any help. A lot more work could be done I she said if everyone would work
together.
From Kelly’s workplace and her experiences she has had, I would say that her work is a social purpose and usefulness, “When our work is useful to others and its purpose motivates individuals to accomplish tasks.” (COMS310 Lecturer, 2015) Kelly’s work is useful to others by helping them figure out what they are sick with or diagnose them for the better to understand what is wrong with them.
In her job she spends a lot of time interacting with others. She has experienced a lot of Interpersonal experiences,” interacting one on one with supervisors, employees and patients.” (Shockley-Zalabak, 2015, P. 151) Kelly looks up her to doctor/ supervisor for advise on things she needs to work on and information to educate her better to give to her patients. Also Kelly and the other nurses give each other the support they need by helping each other out when one is busy. When the other nurses are just browsing the Internet or on their phone, Kelly and other nurses will use the power, “influence another person behavior to change their mind for a better outcome” (Shockley-Zalabak, 2015, P. 45) to ask the other nurses if they will come help them because they are too busy. Kelly describes different networks, “formal or informal ways of communicating” (Shockley-Zalabak, 2015, P. 33) in her work place. The formal way she communicates at work is when she is speaking about patients and diagnoses. The informal way is when she is communicating with managers and staff about schedules is through
email. Lastly, the different channels, “the different ways of communicating” (Shockley-Zalabak, 2015, P. 151) that she uses with the people at her work place. With her patients she can only communicate through telephone. When she is talking to her doctor it is usually face to face if not through email when they are at different locations. Third way is with her staff members is can be face-to-face, telephone or even email.

Work Cited
COMS310 Lecturer (2015). Listening [Audio recording]. Retrieved from Retrieved from University of Kansas 4152-64482: 2015Spring-COMS 310 Introduction to Organizational Communication LEC Blackboard: https://courseware.ku.edu/webapps/osv-kaltura-bb_bb60/jsp/viewContent1_Iframe.jsp?entry_id=0_19r326q6
Shockley-Zalabak, P.S. (2015). Fundamentals of Organizational Communication: Knowledge, sensitivity, skills, values. Boston: Pearson