Chapter 2 Case study exercises

Activity 1

For each example below, list the ways in which your prior knowledge of this person might negatively affect your perception of their communication. How might your expectations influence your communication? What could you do to reduce the effects of the self-fulfilling prophecy in each situation?

Nursing Scenario

You are the head nurse of a busy emergency room. For the fourth time this week, an elderly woman has been registered for complaints about pain in her knees and back. You have dealt with her all four times this week and each time she persistently demanded pain medication by yelling and complaining loudly in the emergency room. The doctors who have seen her in the past refuse to prescribe her any more painkillers (as was the case last time), which resulted in extremely rude comments, threatening to have her husband report you and the doctor for mistreatment. She is next to be seen by you in triage.

Barb is your nurse manager and this is the second complaint that has been reported to her this week. When receiving the complaint, Barb is frustrated because the husband who had complained knows that his wife is addicted to prescription pain medications for symptoms that are largely psychosomatic. The husband was belligerent in his complaint to Barb and reported mistreatment, rude behaviour, and rude comments from doctors and nurses. It is important that patients and hospital staff are treated with respect and surrounded by a safe and caring work environment, and Barb knows how stressful it can be on the floor. You have a meeting with Barb to discuss the patient, long-term planning, and strategies for when addicted patients demand prescriptions.

Business Scenario

You work at the returns counter of a major department store. There is a man in line whom you saw a co-worker assist last week. At that time, he attempted to return a pair of pants that he had bought a month earlier and had worn and washed. He said he didn’t like the style and it didn’t suit him, and he wanted a full refund. He yelled at your co-worker and accused him of being incompetent when he explained that the store’s return policy did not allow such returns. You have to serve this man next.

You are the store manager. You have seen customers try to return everything from items that have been washed and worn to items that were clearly worn several times and the tags still intact. You are receiving a complaint from a customer who claims the staff member at the counter was rude to him when he tried to return the pants he purchased several weeks ago. The customer claims that the counter staff who served him chuckled, was “snarky,” and rolled his eyes when he explained that he needed to return the pants because they didn’t fit properly once he got them home and tried them on.

Communication Scenario

You are the assistant coach of a soccer team of eight-year-old girls and boys. The mother of a child on your team has left you a voicemail message to call her back. The last time you saw her, she accused your colleague, the head coach, of playing other children more frequently and not giving her child enough shifts. She claimed the head coach didn’t know how to put together a winning team. In her message, she didn’t say what she wanted to talk to you about.

You are the mother of an eight-year-old boy on a local club soccer team. You are so frustrated that both the head coach and assistant coach have not returned your calls. The last time you left a game, your son was crying in the car because he didn’t get to play. Your son is sure it is because the coaches do not like him. You want to get the situation sorted because your son just wants to play soccer, but he is not given any time on the field to play. Practice time is okay, but it would be nice if he was able to feel good about participating in a game. After all, you are paying the same amount of fees for your son as all the other kids who get lots of game time to play.

Activity 2

What Would You/Should You Do?

Imagine that you are at a family reunion, and you've been noticing how your cousin talks to his eight-year-old son. Over the course of the day, your cousin has said a number of hurtful things to the boy. When the child was getting his lunch, his dad said, “If you don't eat more than that, you'll always be scrawny.” When the kids were choosing teams for a softball game, your cousin told everyone that his son couldn't hit a pitch if his life depended on it. And when the boy fell off the trampoline and starting crying, his father called him a “cry baby.” Given what you know about the effects of messages on a person's self-concept, what would you – or should you – do?