One of the most important aspects in the nursing profession is the need for good and effective communication. This is because good communication skills especially in the nurse-patient relationship have a significant impact on patient safety and recovery. Effective communication skills in the clinical setting are critical for the development of nurse-patient relationship and provision of health care information (Bruderle, 2003). Nurses usually exchange information with physicians, patients, colleagues and other people in the clinical setting. This communication is usually done through a variety of levels and ways, which determine whether it’s effective or not. Due to the importance of communication in the nursing profession and clinical setting, there is a range of different communication strategies including:
General Communication Strategy:
The general communication strategies involve conversation and elaboration, active listening, mutual understanding, and allowing patients to share their thoughts and feelings. One of the most critical aspects of the general communication strategies is active listening and acknowledging patients’ feelings and thoughts. This strategy usually occurs in a social or structured environment where nurses are able to know patients as unique individuals. The strategy also involves the use of both verbal and non-verbal communication ways.
Through the use of verbal communication ways, nurses communicate clearly and with a good tone that helps patients to understand them. For this communication to be effective, nurses wait for a patient’s response once they have communicated clearly. Verbal communication means are mostly used in conversation and elaboration where nurses may make broad open...
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... a patient. This requirement is usually stipulated in the national standard of care in the nursing profession, which is the degree of competency, care and judgment in conducting the nursing function. However, the duty of care does not necessarily require nurses to provide optimal care or have extraordinary skills (“Legal Issues in Nursing”, n.d.). Failure to comply with the required regulations regarding informed consent and duty of care may lead to nurses being sued for incompetence, negligence or illegal conduct.
Conclusion:
As nurses communicate with patients and colleagues in various levels and ways, there is a range of different communication strategies including general and therapeutic ones. Documentation, informed consent, confidentiality, open disclosure and duty of care are aspects that determine communication strategies between nurses and patients.
These are Verbal, Non-Verbal and Written communication. Verbal communication refers to spoken contact between individuals, Non-Verbal is unspoken communication such as body language and written communication that uses a different pathway such as a letter. The success of verbal communication is dependent on precise, well defined, clear and age appropriate contact (RCN 2015). For example, a paediatric patient’s diagnosis may be approached with a less detailed account of the illness, thus not to confuse the individual or provoke fear. Furthermore non-verbal communication constructs a large percentage of paediatric nursing cases, due to circumstances where verbal communication is not possible. Patient-oriented care is vital for growing an understanding of the individual’s non-verbal signs of pain, which expressed the importance of actively looking for distress signals (Mattsson 2002). Finally written communication acts as the record keeping and documentation element of nursing care, which is a fundamental skill for all medical staff (NMC 2002). Incorrect written communication can lead to individual missing key changes in a patient’s condition thus leading to a potential fall in a patient’s health (Inan and Dinc
According to Du Pre (2013), effective health communication saves time and money, helps healthcare organizations run effectively and is an important source of personal confidence and coping ability. She approaches communication with each patient and their family through a process of understanding and sharing meaning (Du Pre, 2013, p. 8). She pays close attention to the people she is communicating with by listening and watching their actions and emotions; she encourages a sense of team – that they are not alone; she displays sensitivity while being pleasantly comical. The intake nurse is one of the first medical professionals the patient encounters while visiting the emergency department. She ultimately sets the tone and standard for health communication, and I feel that she does an excellent
Communication is the key method to exchange patients’ information between nurses, doctors and another health care teams.
“Communication is the heart of nursing… your ability to use your growing knowledge and yourself as an instrument of care and caring and compassion” (Koerner, 2010, as cited in Balzer-Riley, 2012, p. 2). The knowledge base which Koerner is referring to includes important concepts such as communication, assertiveness, responsibility and caring (Balzer-Riley, 2012). Furthermore, communication is complex. It includes communication with patients, patient families, doctors, co-workers, nurse managers and many others. Due to those concepts and the variety of people involved, barriers and issues are present. Knowing how to communicate efficiently can be difficult.
Communication involves the exchange of information between two or more people. Whether verbal or nonverbal, communication serves as the bridge that allows people to share ideas and thoughts. Clinical professionals converse with patients, relatives, and other professionals daily. Conversely, despite having multiple encounters with patients every day, physicians fail to enact the necessary communication and interpersonal skills to effectively listen, instill confidence, and promote following medical advice in patients.
Communication is cited as a contributing factor in 70% of healthcare mistakes, leading to many initiatives across the healthcare settings to improve the way healthcare professionals communicate. (Kohn, 2000.)
-clinician communication and the interdisciplinary team communication. The purpose of this paper is to list the seven principles of patient-clinician communication and how they apply to my own patients. The paper will also discuss the three methods that are used by the interdisciplinary team to improve communication, and I will describe the method that I currently use on a daily basis. The ethical principles will be addressed on how they apply to communication in order to promote patient safety.
Nurses today need to have excellent communication skills. Receiving information from patients is the most important aspect of nursing. If nurses are unable to communicate with their patient then they would not be able to have a relationship with them. Communication is where two or more people interact with each other, by using sounds and words, this is verbal communication. Some individuals have different behaviors where they try to express themselves to others without using spoken words, this is non verbal communication. Once nurses have the proper communication tools, techniques and evidence based practice, when communicating with their patient, they would get the necessary information needed from the patient to properly diagnosis them.
Communication is a major aspect of the nursing field. The nursing student should plan to use effective communication everyday whether they are in class or in the clinical setting. Nonverbal communication is the use of body language, touch and physical appearance, while verbal is the spoken words that have a private meaning (Boykins & Carter, 2012). Communication is used daily in the healthcare setting. For example, communication is used to update fellow nursing staff or doctors about a patient’s condition. If effective communication is not present while providing care, the nurse-client bond will never form. The nursing student should use therapeutic communication to build a relationship with their client. In doing this, the nursing student is showing their concern and care for the client so that they are able to fully trust them and their
According to Boykin “Caring is the foundation of nursing” (Boykin et al, 2011), and it is the nurses’ responsibility to understand what it means to be caring toward patients, which can be achieved through having professional communication skills. Not only does not being able to communicate affect the patient, but also it affects how the nurse is able to do his or her job to the best they can. Smith and Pressman say that the Institute of Medicine has released reports, which stress, “good communication is critical to ensuring safe and reliable nursing” (Smith & Pressman, 2010). Bad communication skills have the potential to be more dangerous to the patient and can in tern make a life-threateni...
In nursing practice, communication is essential, and good communication skills are paramount in the development of a therapeutic nurse/patient relationship. This aim of this essay is to discuss the importance of communication in nursing, demonstrating how effective communication facilitates a therapeutic nurse/patient relationship. This will be achieved by providing a definition of communication, making reference to models of communication and explaining how different types of communication skills can be used in practise.
Irrespective of the form of communication, it has been established that effective healthcare worker to patient communication is vital to ensure necessary instructions will be followed (DV & Rajavel, 2008). The manner by which information is shared has changed over recent years, moving from non-existent or hand written notes to now pre-printed instructions or electronic discharge summaries.
Communication is an important concept of caring in nursing because the nurse has to know how to communicate efficiently in order to get the patient to trust the nurse enough to open up to the nurse and also the nurse needs to communicate respectfully to show the patient that they genuinely do care about their health and want to help them as much as they
Nontherapeutic techniques such as giving advice and close-ended questions can prove detrimental for the nurse-client relationship. In addition to asking “why” questions, which challenges the client’s actions, the strategy of focusing or using minimal cues and leads may prove more effective. For example, the nursing student asked, “Why do you feel that way?” Instead, she should have said, “And then? Tell me about it,” which encourages the client to continue further. The nursing student does not sound too harsh or instigative, which can improve communication between the client and the nursing student. Effective communication requires “an understanding of the patient and the experiences they express” (Kourkouta & Papathanasiou, 2014, p. 65). As a result, nurses who practice good communication skills as a result effects good quality of care as
The way that people deliver the words that come out of their mouth varies from culture to culture. Formal communication serves the purpose of distinction of a higher social status or as a sign of respect due to age (Galanti, 2008, p. 32). It is important to recognize the need for formal communication since not using it when necessary can lead to patients as well as nurses not communicating effectively with one another.