Essay On Importance Of Communication In Nursing

Care, compassion, competence, communication, courage and commitment are the 6 Cs put forward by the Chief Nursing Officer. Chose 1 of these and using the available evidence, explore why it is important for nursing

The values written by the Chief Nursing Officer, Jane Cummings in 2012 in ‘Compassion in Practice’ are best known as the Six Cs. They have been written to support nurses and other professionals to provide the best care to the individuals. (Stephenson 2014). Department of Health (DH) (2012) promote codes such as Care; Compassion; Courage; Communication; Commitment and Competence and recognise that role of nurses has changed and that principles improve their practice. For the purpose of this essay the attention will be put on importance

This can lead to a person communicating, yet being totally unaware that that he is sending out information. Studies taken by Mehrabian (cited in Graham, 2010) show how a person judges whether others like him or not by ‘reading’ their non-verbal communication, for example saying one is happy to work in a team with another person whilst one’s face tells a completely different story! Unsurprisingly, the project proved that non-verbal communication has a far greater influence than verbal on a face-to-face basis, specifically when interpreting a message only 7% is accounted for by words, 55% by body language and 38% by tone of voice. In nursing practice however this accepted wisdom cannot always be taken into account as a patient may have health issues that affect his or her movement; age (either very young or very old age) can also affect this type of communication. On the other hand, a nurse can use body language to show that he or she is interested in the patient and this can help build trust. Eye to eye contact is very popular in non-verbal communication as an aid to interpreting whether a service user is telling the truth (people tend to look others straight in the eye when trying to show they are being open and honest) or hiding something (avoiding another’s eye is a well-known action when someone is lying or feels ashamed, possibly connected to the eyes being the ‘windows of the soul’). Conversely the meaning of facial cues may differ across cultures as in some groups looking away is sign of self-effacement, particularly if the nurse is of the opposite sex; it can also be a way of showing