girl was asked to give the patient a ‘hot pot cit’

As is so often the case, an abbreviation was

used and the girl was asked to give the patient a ‘hot pot cit’. Unfortunately her

interpretation of this instruction led to the patient being sat upon a bedpan of boiling

water! In these cases the students’ guesswork fortunately just led to comic results. That

will of course not always be the case and such errors in the communication process may

be picked up too late or not at all. The errors in the previous examples may be seen as

stupidity or feebleness on the part of the student nurses, but such an interpretation is to

miss the point The fault really lies with the person who gave the instruction not ensuring

that he had made himself properly understood. Either he needed to make a positive

check that the instruction was understood or have a working relationship with the student

nw’se such that queries would be raised if necessary. Tb.e objective with communication

needs to be to see that it is effective rather than being able to lay the blame at someone

else’s door if things go wrong.Nursing examples have been given to illustrate the need to

get accurate feedback. This is not to suggest that nursing is more prone to this type of

problem than other occupations; it is simply that examples come easily to mind from my

experience with nursing. groups.