TABALBA, Alyssa Shane V.

BS BIO 1-Y1-2
PURC

Activity 1: Reading Comprehension Communication Flows

1. Sara Lang is a charge nurse at Sunny Nursing Home and has worked under the same
president, Lisa Davis, for five years. In fact, the two have become good friends. They
frequently socialize after hours. Rick Walters, Director of Nursing, is a capable person
who has been working there for three years. Four nurses (Anna, Barbara, Charles, and
Dan) report directly to Sara.

Anna, one of the nurses, was having personal difficulties. She asked Sara if she could
change her work schedule from the usual 8-hour shift of 4 days with 3 consecutive days
off to 16-hour shifts for two days and 5 consecutive days off. Sara thought that was not a
problem and told Anna that she would enter that information into the computerized
scheduling system, and that she would tell Lisa Davis of the change, since they were
getting together for a drink after work. Barbara overheard the conversation between Sara
and Anna, and she immediately went to see Rick Walters and complained that Anna was
getting preferential treatment and she wanted the same schedule. Rick, who always
wanted to make sure that the nursing staff were happy and got along, approved Barbara’s
change in schedule. He made this change through the computerized schedule and did not
tell anyone else.

Barbara, who is good friends with Charles, told him of her new schedule. Charles, who
works closely with Chief of Staff, Dr. Goodman, told Dr. Goodman of the change in
Barbara’s schedule and asked Dr. Goodman to change his. Dr. Goodman thought it was a
good idea and e-mailed Charles’ new schedule to his assistant, Susan Stevens, to enter it
into the scheduling system.

On the next Monday morning, changes were implemented to Anna’s, Barbara’s, and
Charles’ schedules. Yet, no one had discussed these changes with anyone else. When the
schedule was printed out and posted, it showed that Anna, Barbara, and Charles were all
off for 5 days that week from Monday to Friday and all three began work on Saturday. In
the meantime, the only nurse left working was Dan.

Source: Chapter 4 – Workplace Communication by Guo, K. and Sanchez, Y.

Discussion Questions:

What are the different forms of communication flow taking place?

1. Upward Communication Flow & lateral communication
The employees/nurses, Anna, Barbara, Dan, and Charles can directly communicate
with upper management, which are Lisa Davis (President), Rick Walters (Director of
Nursing), Dr. Goodman (Chief of Staff), to provide their complaints, suggestion, and
feedback towards their work schedule, as they were working for quite a long time, the
higher ups/officials considered their suggestions on the work schedule, the approach
was from the upward to a supervisor which also means a lower-level to the upper-
level, regarding the day-to-day operation of the company. Another communication
flow was also seen on the third paragraph, which is the horizontal communication,
also called as the lateral communication, laterally to a co-worker, when Barbara, who
is good friends with Charles, told him of her new schedule.

2. What changes should have been implemented?

The schedule should be a fixed schedule as much as possible and prepared
beforehand so that the employees would adjust and be aware of it. Effective
scheduling improves the order and communication in the workplace. When a work
schedule is effective, every employee knows where and when they are supposed to
work which increases their focus and ensures everyone employees and management
are all on the same page. Since work schedules of hospital staffs are unpredictably
prolonged and most nurses/healthcare staffs are usually working longer than
scheduled, it is better to have them aware of having a fixed schedule that must be
followed, so that they could be a lot focused and composed with the job on hand.

In additional, the staffs must communicate altogether to avoid unnecessary

confusions and misunderstandings with the work schedule, it would lead to a shortage
of employees or too many employees at once, it affects everyone on their workplace
as people tend to be overworked when they’re working with only a few people with
them, the division of would be better if everybody knows the schedule and will
follow them. If there would be changes on the proposed schedule, the staff must
inform and ask first if there would be a conflict on the desired schedule to avoid
confusion.

3. What should be done now?

Learn from what happened and have a meeting about the work schedule. To avoid
further confusion, every employee, staff, nurse and the people all over the medical
field must be knowledgeable of the schedule that they have and talk about it
beforehand, so that if any emergency or change of schedule occurs, it will not cause
burden or misunderstanding to the rest of the staff on-duty.
In addition, the upper-level, higher ups, or the persons with the highest positions
should be responsive and initiative as well on asking their employees on their
preferred work off to provide them a better schedule too. If possible, the staffs should
also talk to one another and know to give & take. Not everyone would get their
desired work schedule but when people communicate well, they will eventually work
efficiently, be informed of the other staffs, and understand the situations that needs
urgency. By that time, they will recognize the importance of telling their preferences
and value openness that contributes to a better workflow.