Active Listening

Active listening is a communication skill that is extremely important in the interviewing process. It is essentially, listening for meaning as what someone says and what you hear can be different. Personal beliefs and assumptions can distort what you hear (Andersen, 2008). Active listening uses restatement to ensure understanding, and means the listener is not only paying attending to what is said but how it is said. It helps eliminate barriers that keep you from hearing accurately (Browning & Waite, 2010). This is important in understanding patients but several academic papers have identified a problem of active listening in handover, targeting the lack of communication between the paramedic handing a patient over in the emergency department (ED). Poor active listening in handover leads to patient safety issues and vital information being lost. This lack of active listening is often due to the conflict between listening and performing practical work which prevents an individual from practicing their active listening skills (Dawson, King, & Grantham, 2013). Jensen, Lippert, & Stergaard (2013) suggest that improving active listening skills and strategies, such as delivering information in two phases, the essential information and then the supplementary information, when initial treatment has been undertaken. These articles have highlighted to myself the importance of active listening on patient outcomes. In order to reflect this, I will try to practice my active listening skills, particularly in high paced environments.