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The importance of good communication skills in healthcare
The importance of good communication skills in healthcare
Importance of effective communication in healthcare setting
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There are many different attributes which are required in the role of the registered nurse. These attributes help registered nurses with different aspects of client care, from explaining a treatment to the client, to supporting the family of a client with chronic illness. The attributes are an integral aspect of creating and maintaining therapeutic relationships with clients and their family (Day, Levett-Jones & Kenny 2012). The age of the clients has an impact on the way the nurse would interact with that client, hence it effects which attributes are more important to use. When caring for children it is particularly important to use the following attributes: effective communication techniques, advocating for the client when their rights are overlooked and interacting in a supportive manner. The above techniques allow the registered nurses to create and maintain therapeutic relationships with the child and their parents or caregivers, which leads to better outcomes for the client (Polaschek, L. & Polaschek, N. 2007). If the registered nurse does not use the above attributes, they may not be providing the appropriate level of care for the patient, which will impact the patient’s health outcomes (Day, Levett-Jones & Kenny 2012).
It is important for a registered nurse to use a range of effective communication techniques to establish and maintain a therapeutic relationship with their client, in particular when their client is a child. Using a range of effective communication techniques allows the registered nurse to be able to explain to the child, using the appropriate language, what their illness is and how they will be treated. This is particularly important in the maintenance of therapeutic relationships with children as they ...
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... registered nurse, Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, viewed 29 April 2014,< http://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Statements/Codes-Guidelines.aspx>
Panicker, L. 2013, ‘Nurses perceptions of parent empowerment in chronic illness’, Contemporary Nurse: A journal for the Australian Nursing Profession, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 210-219.
Polaschek L. & Polaschek N. 2007, ‘Solution-focused conversations: a new therapeutic strategy in well child health nursing telephone consultations’, Journal of Advanced Nursing, pp. 117.
Sarjari, M., Shirazi, F., Heidari, S., Salemi, S., Rahmani, M., Shoghi, M. 2009, ‘Nursing support for parents of hospitalised children’, Issues in Comprehensive Pediatric Nursing, vol. 32, pp.120-130.
Author Unknown 2014, ‘Ramadan’, BBC, 28 June, viewed 3 May 2014,
Therapeutic communication can help promote a relationship between the nurse and the client, by focusing on the client’s needs. The nurse can do this by using various types of communication skills, such as giving recognition, giving information, and offering self. Giving recognition is acknowledging the client’s needs in a non-judgmental way.An example of giving recognition in Bed Number Ten is “After you’re a little better, we’ll be taking you to the physical therapy department for regular work to rebuild your strength” (54). Sue enjoyed the conversation with Charles because he was the first to spoke to her about getting better. Giving information is providing specific factual information the client may or may not request. “All the way through,
Nurses play a big role in supporting the parents while their child is in the NICU. Showing compassion and demonstrating caring actions when caring for the patient makes it more likely that the parents will trust the nurse and the information the nurse gives them regarding their child’s condition. This trust is important as it helps the parents feel confident in the decisions they are making about their child’s care. When the parents of an ill child in the NICU have decided to terminate treatment palliative care by the nurse and other healthcare providers comes into play. Palliative care is keeping the child comfortable by treating the symptoms and being there for the parents and child physically, emotionally, and spiritually (Eden & Callister, 2010).
Family centred care and comfort care theory both work for the well being of patient. Family centred care focus to work with family while providing care for the sick child. Family and pediatric staff works in collaboration to make care plan that works the best for sick child (Coyne, O'Neill, Murphy, & Costello, 2011). Similarly, comfort care theory focus on child’s physical, psychospiritual, sociocultural, and environmental aspects. “When comfort needs are addressed in one context, total comfort is enhanced in the remaining context” (Kolcaba & Dimarco, 2005, p. 190). When nurses apply comfort care theory, it is to achieve holistic care of sick children by focusing on all aspects (Kolcaba
Children with chronic illnesses live a lifestyle that changes, and different problems that arise, as the child passes through developmental changes up to adulthood. Using knowledge of child development a nurse can recognize regressions in the child’s development and put preventive strategies in place. Nurses can plan and implement therapeutic regimens such as given medicine. Young people with chronic illness and their families are faced with coping with the demands of chronic conditions on a daily basis. Nurses can assist parents with different coping strategies that can be used by parents to minimize impact of diagnosis. For instance, they can provide explanations to parents about diagnosis, and support, and encourage family.
Also, the whole family needs to come to term with the health condition, make change in priorities and schedule, and keep the family. For example, it can be much more stressful for a young or a newly married couple because they may have more experience to overcome life's difficulties. As a result, as with individual maturation, family development can be delayed or even revert to a previous level of functioning (Hockenberry, p 762.) Therefore, health care providers need to apply family development theory while planning care for a child and family with chronic health condition. Indeed, family centered care should be a part of that intervention. Parents and family members have huge and comprehensive caregiving responsibilities for their chronically ill child at home or at hospital. Moreover, the main goal taking care of chronic ill child is to “minimize the progression of the disease and maximize the child’s physical, cognitive, psychological potential” (Hockenberry, p 763). Therefore, it is essential to family being part of the child care to give highest quality of care. On the other hand, we are as a part of the health care provider need to give attention to all
The relationship between the person seeking help and the nurse/counsellor should be appropriate for producing therapeutic change, to ensure that the patient maximizes from the therapeutic relationship. The health care provider should ensure that they communicate effectively to the patient/client. The skills explained in the above essay are the relevant skills that nurses in the contemporary hospital environment should adhere to and respect.
The health care system of today will be invaluable without the help of well-trained registered professional nurses. According to Wilkinson, Treas, Barnett, Smith (2016) registered nurses in today’s health care have the training required to develop a care plan with other health care workers that is specific for each patient in their care, instead of the same general approach for every patient. This is known as patient centered care because each patient is different from the other and the registered nurse role includes developing a good plan for every patient they care for. In performing such duties, registered nurses tend to create a strong bond with their patients by caring for their patients by all means possible. By caring for their patients, they tend to gain their patients and their families trust. According to Wilkinson et al. (2016) There are many support systems for patients in our communities that have good intentions of assisting sick people and those in need. Most of them are not known by the patient or their families. The registered nurse is the one who is in the position to inform the patient or family about such resources that may be very helpful for them if they are interested. By doing so, the patient knows that the nurse really cares about him/her and that feels very comforting and may help the patient get well
Not only is professional communication important in the portrayal of a good nursing image and behaviour, it also plays a vital role in patient care and health outcomes. The ANMC standards serve as a good guidance on the need to establish therapeutic relationship through effective communication. As nurses spend relatively more time with patients, they play a significant role in bridging a patient and doctor. Hence, it is would help for nurses to constantly hone their communication skills through experience over time.
Furthermore it’s very important not to judge the patient pertaining to what they may have to say. Good communication helps nurses build a relationship with their patient. Linking my personal experience from the clinical area relates to the practical side of nursing. It is necessary for communication between the nurse and the patient to be clear, understandable, appropriate and
The nurse in today's society provides different services to the healthcare community. Taylor (2011) lists the common roles of the nurse as follows: communicators, educators, researchers, advocates, collaborators, and caregivers. The communicator role of a nurse involves “effective interpersonal and therapeutic communication skills to establish and maintain helping relationships with patients of all ages in a wide variety of healthcare settings” (Taylor, 2011, pg 11). Patients look to nurses for information and communicate better with them because they are the most hands on role in the healthcare setting. As an educator, the nurse is responsible for assessing and evaluating individualized teaching plans for patients and their families (pg
They should feel that they are cared for by friendly, approachable, available, helpful and informative staff who can listen to them, offer them advice, protect their dignity, anticipate their anxieties and act in appropriate ways.” (Proctor). She explains the importance of patient and caregiver communication, as well as, the characteristics to portray towards a patient. When a nurse shows respect and acknowledges the patient that shows they are willing to have an open relationship to give quality
Therapeutic nurse-patient relationships lay the groundwork for successful care and rehabilitation of a patient in any setting. Whether the patient is in a nursing home, hospital, or receiving home care, a therapeutic nurse-patient relationship is vital to the care of the patient. A therapeutic nurse-patient relationship can be defined as a professional relationship between the nurse and the patient that, “focuses on the client, is goal directed, and has defined parameters” (Craven & Hirnle, 2009, p. 329).
In contemporary nursing practice, nurses need to integrate scientific knowledge and nursing theories prior to providing optimal health care. Nursing theories guide nurses to treat clients in a supportive and dignified manner through client centred approaches. However, it is challenge for nurses to practice client centred care in daily realities due to heavy workloads. In order to assist nurses to decrease the gap between ideal and real practice, Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) develops Best Practice Guideline of Client-centred-care (Neligan, Grinspun, JonasSimpson, McConnell, Peter, Pilkington, et al., 2002). This guideline offers values and beliefs as foundation of client-centred care, and the core processes of client-centred care can facilitate provision of optimal nursing care. These four core processes of client-centred care include identifying concerns, making decisions, caring and service, and evaluating outcomes. According to RNAO (2006), ongoing dialogue with clients and self-reflection are essential for nurses to develop their nursing skills and knowledge on client-centred care. As a nursing student, I reflected on written transcripts of interactions between patients and me, so that I could gain insights into client-centred care for further improvement. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to discuss importance of the core processes of client-centred care in nursing practice through identifying and critiquing blocks to conversation. Based on the guideline of RNAO (2006), respect, human dignity, clients are experts for their own lives, responsiveness and universal access will be elaborated in each core process of client-centre care as reflecting on three dialogues with patients.
In health care, there are many different approaches throughout the field of nursing. When considering the field of family nursing, there are four different approaches to caring for patients. This paper will discuss the different approaches along with a scenario that covers that approach. The approaches that will be discussed include family as a context, family as a client, family as a system, and family as a component to society. Each of these scenarios are approach differently within the field of nursing.
Therapeutic communication is an important skill for a nurse to utilize when it comes to relationships between the patient and nurse. In Regina’s case, integration of empathetic and compassionate communication skills in combinat...