Arizona State ENG 301 The Role of Communication in Criminal Justice Capstone
Arizona State ENG 301 The Role of Communication in Criminal Justice Capstone ORDER NOW FOR CUSTOMIZED AND ORIGINAL ESSAY PAPERS ON Arizona State ENG 301 The Role of Communication in Criminal Justice Capstone I have attached the required material to help ensure what is needed and how the final formal report should look like. In addition, the formal report is basically how communication comes hand in hand when used in a criminal justice type of work. I am majoring criminal justice and I have to write this report to further explain how the use of communication in my area would improve everything else. Arizona State ENG 301 The Role of Communication in Criminal Justice Capstone Please let me know if you need anything else to help with the report. The progress report is the mini version of the formal report. Also, I am focusing on the company ARAMCO also and how internationally criminal justice employees are needed in companies, especially worldwide type of important companies. The paper includes me having an interview with someone, but please bring 10 or less questions that I (hypthetacilly) already asked a crime analyst and how he responded with a good answer when it comes to how CRJ employees work around the country and/or world eng_301_formal_report_2011.doc eng_301_wp_1_assignment_sheet.doc progress_report.docx Analysis of the Writing Issues and Practices Students Name Submitted to Eng 301: Writing for the Professions Date of submission TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 3 Methods of Research ..3 Results. ..6 What type of professional writing do you do on a daily basis? .. 8 How often do you write to communicate to your employees .8 What type of professional writing do you do that provides information so that others can make decisions? 9 When you write, do you try to create, maintain, or improve your Professional image? ..9 When you write, do you consider your audiences background and level of education? ..10 What do you want your readers to do after reading your communication? .11 Are there things you must communicate by a certain time? ..11 Are you dependent on others to meet deadlines? ..11 Conclusion . 12 References .13 Introduction The purpose of this formal report is to provide information on the writing practices that impact the nursing profession, particularly in management of the nursing staff. This information is taken from two pertinent articles and from an interview with Gregory Scaggs, Director of Nursing, who is employed at Banner Samaritan. I will summarize the articles and provide an analysis of my interview with Mr. Scaggs, held on February 18, 2016, at Banner Samaritan, Mesa, Arizona. In addition to mapping how Mr. Scaggs goes about writing new policy and procedure documents I will also provide examples of daily emails and memos he writes during his daily routine. The scope of this report is limited in that I was unable to obtain any actual policy or procedure writing due to the hospital policy that forbids the release of these documents to the general public. Arizona State ENG 301 The Role of Communication in Criminal Justice Capstone This report will discuss the critical need for good communication skills in and on nursing, and the specific communication duties of a director of nursing. It will reveal how team writing is absolutely essential to meet the daily deadlines that otherwise would be missed; how communication creates a safe environment for patients and staff; and lastly, this report will address how important the tone is when writing to a specific and general workforce. Methods of Research I conducted secondary research through the ASU Libraries databases. After logging onto the Academic Search Premier, I searched via the terms nursing and written communication. I found Keys to success by Rob Ashton. By consulting Medline, a more specialized database, I entered the words nursing and communication and found Nursing handoffs: A systematic review of literature. Both articles provided pertinent information for my report. I was able to interview Gregory Scaggs, M.S., the Director of Nursing for Select Specialty Hospital at Banner Desert, Mesa. I know Mr. Scaggs by means of my employment at Banner Desert. Mr. Scaggs has over thirty years experience in the field of nursing and management of a nursing staff, making him an ideal candidate to field questions concerning the processes of professional writing. I contacted Mr. Scaggs using the companys in-house email system and our interview took place on February 18, 2015. Using the questions I previously created and reviewed with my collaborators, I met Mr. Scaggs at his office. The questions that I used during my interview are listed below: What type of professional writing do you do on a daily basis? How often do you write to your employees? What type of professional writing do you do that provides information so that others can make decisions? When you write, do you try to create, maintain or improve your professional image? When you write, do you consider your audiences background and level of education? What do you want your readers to be able to do after reading your communication? Are there things you must know or do at a certain time? Are you dependent on others to meet deadlines? Results Rob Ashtons brief article, Keys to success (2015), found in Nursing Standard , was extremely informative about the weaknesses that occur in nursing written communication. These weaknesses include lack of focus, organization, and unclear communication of facts, concerns and recommendations. He has four basic recommendations that will apply to any kind of professional writing the nurse must do. First, the nurse should identify the target audience (attending physician? Lab technician? Fellow nurse? An unfamiliar nurse? Therapist? Technician?); use a mind map to help organize ideas (first to last; chronological; question/answer; comparison/contrast); seek a simple, plain style that most directly conveys crucial information; and then have a colleague proof the results to identify unclear or missing information. Ashton (2015) concludes his article with the dictum that poor nursing frequently commences with poor or weak communication. Technology has been privileged over communication, but as equipment is constantly improving, communication technology has been improved too, but methods still lag (155). Arizona State ENG 301 The Role of Communication in Criminal Justice Capstone The second article, Nursing handoffs: A systematic review of the literature (Riesenberg and Cunningham, 2010), is somewhat dated lengthy but is an illuminating review of professional literature that seeks to discover evidence-based strategies for improving nursing hand-offs or patient care at the end of the nursing shift. Hand-offs, described by the Riesenberg and Cunningham (2010) as an extremely critical moment in patient care (89), are frequently left unaddressed in hospital training. The chief negative issues of hand-offs, which may affect patient care, includes incomplete information, and inaccurate and disorganized reporting. Nurses, in a survey, identified certain factors that impede clear communication: inconsistency and insufficient time head the list. In the same survey nurses identified methods of improving hand-off communications: pertinent content, spaces for notes, and a structured form or checklist that help nurses identify issues. Both articles, in sum, clearly identified the important of clear communication in nursing/patient care, and how this critical information practices can be reformed and improved by several easy methods. My interview with Greg Scaggs took place in his office, and required about 45 minutes. His answers were recorded with pen and paper, transcribed, and to my request for review, Mr. Scaggs accepted the opportunity and corrected some points. What type of professional writing do you do on a daily basis? Being the director of nursing, a post which entails much communication, Mr. Scaggs finds he writes on the professional level every day at work. He stated in our interview that email was his most frequent means of communication. He uses email on a daily basis to get information from other hospitals concerning prospective patients. He also uses email to keep in touch with the entire staff about anything going on in the hospital that he feels is important. Mr. Scaggs also stated that his use of memos and letters are a big part of his daily routine; often times he uses his assistant to type the memo or the letter and then he signs off on if, after reading. Another professional type of writing is employee review. One type of professional writing that nobody likes to talk about is the incident report. Mr. Scaggs writes and reviews an incident report every week and uses his most professional communication skills to write corrective action letters to whoever is involved. Unfortunately, I was unable to obtain an example of an incident report due to the confidential nature of such communication. The last type of writing we spoke about was hospital policy and procedures. Mr. Scaggs said that whenever there is a new medication or new intervention, a team of writers meets to write a policy and procedure statement that nurses can reference when using the new method. It is a hospital policy that no such documents are released to the public unless subpoenaed by a judge, so no example can be provided in this report. How often do you write to communicate to your employees? Mr. Scaggs said, A good director of nursing must do this on a daily basis; it is important to have open communication with the employees, and it improves morale. He keeps in contact with all the employees through email and he most often addresses questions and concerns to the night-shift staff through email because he is in less personal contact with them. What type of professional writing do you do that provides information so that others can make decisions? Arizona State ENG 301 The Role of Communication in Criminal Justice Capstone When asked the third question, Mr. Scaggs immediately brought up the writing the policy and procedure documents that we had touched upon earlier in our interview. When I asked him if he could tell me a little bit about how he and his writing team go about writing new policy and procedure statements he described how that they first compile all the information into a readable document that is both easy to follow and that is a step by step representation of what should be done to ensure the best possible outcome. When you communicate, do you try to create, maintain, or improve your professional image? As a director of any corporation, it is important to write in the proper tone so that your image as a respected individual remains intact, were the words of Mr. Scaggs. He said that even writing memos and announcements to the staff takes care; he has to choose the right words to convey his message. He said that when communicating with staff members who are all educated adults, he needs to ask their cooperation in a tone that will not be deemed sarcastic or threatening. A negative example was his Flu Vaccine memo; he said that if given the opportunity he would rewrite a sentence: Be sure everyone knows how important it is to get a flu shot!!! Quite a few employees were offended by his use of three exclamation marks that ended the sentence. The employees said it seemed he was talking to them as if they were uneducated or clueless. When writing, do you consider your audiences background and level of education? Mr. Scaggs responded immediately: The audience I write to is mostly healthcare professionals, so I do conduct my writing to fit their knowledge level which is extensive. He is able to use words and abbreviations in his writings that would be familiar to a person educated in the health care field. In Mr. Scaggs email he uses abbreviations such as SBAR, GI/GU/, and EKG. These abbreviations are familiar to the nurses and other healthcare professionals who were recipients of the email, but would have little or no significance for the non-healthcare professional reader. He said being able to use abbreviation cuts down on time spent drafting emails and memos. What do you want your readers to be able to do after reading your communication? Mr. Scaggs said that the most important thing he wants to convey after communication is clarity of the message. He wants the message to be as clear as possible so that the reader can complete the task at hand. I want the nurses to be able to carry out any instructions without confusion to ensure a safe environment for the patients. The first example he gave me was a document he drafted telling nurses how to use WebEx training. The sheet he provided related how to complete an online education module. The document is a simple step by step instruction on how to complete any necessary training. The second example he gave me was a three-way orientation schedule. This is an organized document that breaks down an hour by hour schedule for general hospital orientations. I noticed that it was well organized, and fit all on one page. Are there messages you must communicate at a certain time? I wrapped up the interview with two questions about time and writing. When asked the above question, he responded I have daily deadlines so clear communication is very important in our work. The example he gave me was an email that had no direct connections with patients care but was very important for the hospital to operate smoothly. The email was sent out to notify all staff members that the hospitals lease with Xerox had ended and there were specific things that needed to be done until copiers and printers were exchanged with the new companys products. This email told the office staff that they were expected not to order any more toner and if there is a breakdown of equipment before scheduled replacement they were to call the hospitals help desk and not the Xerox hotline. This email saved time and frustration, because there were no complaints about not knowing what to do. Are you dependent on others to meet deadlines? Answering with a big smile, Mr. Scaggs replied to my last question. I would not do a sufficient job as Director of Nursing if I didnt have such a great staff to help me meet all the daily deadlines involved with this job. He said that without team writing, things would never get done on time. I work daily with several people in the office to get all the information communicated out to the people who need it, said Scaggs. He continued, I have a secretary and I also count on other individuals to get the work completed by the deadline. Conclusion Communicating professionally is time consuming for all involved. There are many types of professional communication in this particular profession; these types include email, memos, letters, policy and procedures documents. In the profession of nursing, there is more than just time involved, there is also the fact that patients lives and well-being can be at stake. Nursing, as in any profession, good communication starts with thinking about your audience, your purpose, keeping things simple, and using colleagues to review. Also, written communication can be improved by asking the practitioners how they might improve communication. The nurses in Nursing handoffs (2010) clearly identified problems, and made good suggestions how communication can be improved simply, and effectively. Arizona State ENG 301 The Role of Communication in Criminal Justice Capstone As for my interview, I learned more about the importance of communication from the managerial perspective. Mr. Scaggs is not on the nursing staff, and therefore his communications do not directly involve the patients. However, his professional interactions contribute to the safe environment for the patients. He too stressed clarity of the message, so the nurse can complete the task quickly and effectively. He also identified strategies discussed in the articles: thinking about the audience, careful organization of the message, and consulting with others. Indeed, without the contributions of several members of his staff, Mr. Scaggs would not be able to meet his daily deadlines. This meeting of deadlines has been greatly augmented in the last twenty years by the increasing expansion and sophistication of electronic methods of communication. The most important lesson that I learned from the interview was how critical tone can be when writing professionally. It can be said that the tone one chooses to use in professional writing can hugely affect how the reader interprets the message. It is safe to say that one should never write a piece of professional writing when angry, or experiencing any other strong emotions. The communicator should also consider the intelligence, training, and professional abilities of the audience, which might preclude unnecessary memos or messages that insult. In conclusion, I realize now more than ever, that good professional writing is critical to saving time and money, and, in the case of the healthcare professional, can also save or protect lives. References Ashton, R. (2008). Keys to success. Nursing Standard, 29 (2), 61-63. Riesenberg, L. & Cunningham, J.M. (2010, April). Nursing handoffs: A systematic review of the literature. American Journal of Nursing, 110 (40 Get a 10 % discount on an order above $ 100 Use the following coupon code : NURSING10
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