Effective Communication in Nursing Essay Example

It is essential to have good communication between nurses and nurses as well as their patients so that the healthcare services can be successful. When nurses communicate with patients, they need to show maximum sincerity, courtesy, and kindness. One time had a conversation with a patient at the consultation room. The patient wanted to share her feelings about the illness she was suffering from. I exercised maximum kindness, courtesy and the highest forms of listening skills (Marquis & Huston, 2017). The communication was majorly verbal through the patient, and I occasionally used gestures and gesticulations to emphasize the points.

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When I wanted to ensure that my points were delivered with full impact, I naturally found myself using gestures. I also found myself using facial expressions more especially when showing empathy. The issues we were discussing were very sensitive because she was narrating to be the way she has been undergoing sufferings as she battles type 2 diabetes. I never interrupted as she was speaking and I was keenly listening as she was speaking (Gifu, Dima & Teodorescu, 2014). I ensured that the patient was comfortable and in a pleasant environment as she was talking to me. I also made sure the environment was conducive enough so that the confidentiality of the communication can be maintained at all times during the communication. I never allowed any third party into the room.

The interaction was not complicated, and it was very successful because the patient left satisfied after the thirty minutes of interaction. The same day I also got a request from another patient who wanted confide with me on some information about her constant weight gain (Johansson, Miller, Hamrin, 2014). The conversation with very well as the first incident because I prepared the environment and the patient well enough to share freely with me without any distractions. However, the third time within the day a patient bumped on me in the corridor and said that she wanted to have a conversation with me. I accepted, but the communication did not go well because there were so many external disruptions because it was a corridor and people were moving up and down (Manojlovich, Harrod, Holtz, Hofer, Kuhn & Krein, 2015). This was a case of ineffective communication because there was no confidentiality and therefore we eventually terminated the communication with sharing much.

Effective communication is an essential ingredient in all nursing activities. There was a time communication ineffective in the health facility where I work. A nurse was having a conversation with a patient in one of the private rooms destined for such purposes. However, several issues made communication not to be effective. Firstly, the nurse did not have time; she used to frequently get out of the room to attend to other issues in the middle of the conversation. Secondly, there were some repairs taking place in the adjacent room thus making the place noisy. Besides, the construction workers were moving up and down hence minimizing the privacy and confidentially of their communication.

Thirdly, in the course of their communication, the nurse was using medical jargon which made it difficult for the patient to have a proper understanding of what the nurse was saying. Finally, due to the culture and beliefs of the patient, as a man, he was not free to share some information with the nurse because (Seyranian, 2014). This ineffective communication would have been avoided if the nurse had looked for an environment that is free of any external disruptions such as people and noise. Additionally, she should have avoided using jargon and use the language which is of the level of the patient devoid of any form of jargon. The nurse should have looked for ample time to attend to the patient rather than leaving the room to attend to other issues. Before any intimate conversation, the cultural values of the client should be taken into consideration. If all those are observed, then the communication will be effective because the environment would necessitate it.

References

Gifu, D., Dima, I. C., & Teodorescu, M. (2014). New communication approaches vs. traditional communication. International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, (20), 46-55. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases. The study highlights some communication instances of actual approach of human society evolution in contrast with traditional communication.

Johansson, C., Miller, V. D., Hamrin, S. (2014). Conceptualizing communicative leadership: A framework for analyzing and developing leaders' communication competence, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 19 (2), 147-165. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Manojlovich, M., Harrod, M., Holtz, B., Hofer, T., Kuhn, L., & Krein, S. L. (2015). The Use of Multiple Qualitative Methods to Characterize Communication Events Between Physicians and Nurses. Health communication, 30(1), 61-69. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases. The purpose of this study was to develop a methodology for identifying and characterizing communication events between physicians and nurses to better understand communication patterns on general medical-surgical units.

Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2017). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application (9th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins. Review Chapter 19, "Organizational, Interpersonal, and Group Communication"

Seyranian, V. (2014). Social Identity Framing communication strategies for mobilizing social change. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(3), 468-486. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.