Essay Example on Nurses' Communication: An Essential Component of Nursing Practice

In recent years, efficient communication has seen an immanent constituent of the practice of nursing, besides it being among the six Cs of nursing. Nurses are obliged to appropriately use the full range of communication approaches, which include verbal, non-verbal, and written communication methods, to obtain, interpret, and depict their knowledge and comprehension of patients’ wants. Nurses need to pay keen attention to how they communicate with their patients to enable them to take fair progress to meet individuals' language and communication desires as well as provide any sort of assistance to patients who require help to communicate their desires (NMC, 2018). Nurses should show empathy when handling patients, and strive to get every detail of what the patients require. Communication is a fundamental component of the nursing practice that should entirely be mastered by nurses to ensure a high quality of care and patient satisfaction.

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Considering the significance of efficient communication, this paper examines a clinical scenario of a teenage patient, Freddie, who has learning difficulties. Freddie presents to the hospital in the company of his mother complaining of pain in his fore left arm whenever he exercises his legs. The nurse attending to them interrogates about Freddie’s condition, but instead of directing her questions to Freddie who is in a position to talk, she directs them to his mother. Even when Freddie attempts to protest about it, the nurse constantly focuses on information from the mother's side. The mother does not exactly know where Freddie hurts, all she knows is that he feels pain in his forearms. Freddie tries to insist that it is not all his arms that hurt but only the left one, but the nurse has held onto the information from the mother and disregards Freddie. He had to continuously emphasize even to the doctor that it is only his left arm that hurts and not both.

The nurse fails to talk with Freddie since she already knew that Freddie had a preexisting Downs Syndrome condition that causes poor muscle tone, and so she assumes that this was precisely the problem when in reality it was something else. The nurse fails to give Freddie a chance to express himself, and neither did she try to assist Freddie by use of say visual aid to point where he was hurting. This scenario expresses the negative communication side of the nurse. Patient care needs collaboration and coordination from both the caregivers and the patients themselves to be effective. Poor or lack of collaboration leads to poor quality of care. To be able to operatively collaborate in caregiving, effective communication is vital. Healthcare providers, including both physicians and nurses, need to master a range of verbal and non-verbal communication skills as well as be culturally sensitive to efficiently comprehend and respond to the patient's wants (NMC, 2018).

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Code identifies the best practices of nurses in disseminating their duties. The core components of the NMC Code including prioritizing patients, practicing efficiently, preserving safety, and elevating professionalism and trust asserts the best practice when handling patients (Boyd and Dare, 2014). In prioritizing patients, their interests are put forth before anything else and the views of the patient should be carefully considered. For effective practice, nurses are required to examine the patient's wants and offer evidence-based treatment (NMC, 2018). Further, the nurses are required to foster clear communication between them and the patient and share care information.

To enhance effective communication between the nurse and the patient, the nurse needs to treat the patient with dignity. Dignifying patients means showing them kindness, love, and respect. It is important to desist from assumptions and acknowledge variability and personal choice (NMC, 2018). In this respect, the nurse in Freddie’s scenario violated the code of conduct. She assumed that since Freddie had Down Syndrome, the pain in his arms could be related to the problem of muscle tone disruption. The nurse again fails to show compassion and respect for Freddie. Given that Freddie could express himself well as seen in the scenario, it was out respect to inquire about the mother about her son's condition (Heath, 2018).

Additionally, in accordance with the NMC Code, a nurse should listen to patients and respond to their concerns and forechoice. The nurse should collaborate with the patient to ensure effective care, respect the patient's contributions towards their care, and respect the patient's involvement in their treatment decisions (Anorld and Boggs, 2019). In Freddie’s scenario, the nurse fails to respect his involvement in care. Freddie keeps on telling the nurse that it is only his left arm that is hurting but the nurse insists that both his arms hurt. The nurse chose to advance her assumptions and disrespect Freddie’s involvement. Listening is a core component of communication, and it is advised that nurses develop the art of active listening to enhance their interactions with patients (Sibiya, 2018). Effective listening boosts the understandability between the nurse and the patient, which influences the nurse to consider the patient's preferences and concerns. In Freddie’s case, if the nurse would have listened actively, then she would have understood that his condition was not a result of muscle tone disruption as she thought.

The nursing practice requires that the nurse acts as the patient's advocate. This means that the nurse should understand the patient's psychological, physical, and social needs to address them effectively(Grant and Goodman, 2018). The contrary is what is observed in Freddie’s scenario since the nurse tries to abandon him in the interrogation. Despite Freddie protesting to be heard, the nurse keeps her conversation with the mother going. Good communication skills articulate that there should always be one person talking at a given time. The nurse's act to keep talking while disregarding Freddie’s voice is malpractice. In fact, the nurse should have given much of his attention to Freddie since that would have enabled her to undertand his concerns. Keeping eye contact on the patient while they talk enables nurses to mine the meaning of their expressions with ease (Heath, 2018).

Good communication requires that one listens to the other talk, then rephrases to ensure they comprehended the exact message before responding. This is actually what every nurse should do to avoid misunderstandings or misinformation with the patient (Omura et al., 2016). Freddie’s nurse does not actively listen to him talk. She poses a query and before he can respond adequately she interrupts the talk. After complaining several about not being asked how he feels, the nurse turns to him to inquire about his condition (Boyd and Dare, 2014). While Freddie composes himself to talk, the nurse unapologetically interrupts. At a later stage when he is explaining how he is feeling the nurse also interrupts. This depicts the nurse's inadequacy in communication skills.

Conclusion

Much of communication is achieved through non-verbal communication. In fact, it is said that 60% of communication is accomplished by non-verbal methods (Sibiya, 2018). Freddie’s nurse inadequately employs non-verbal skills in her communication. She fails to empathetically reflect on what Freddie was explaining and try to understand him. Freddie’s pitch shows that he is genuinely hurting in his left arm. If the nurse would have paid attention to this then she would have understood him better. Again Freddie points to his left arm to emphasize the location of the pain but the nurse is too involved to notice (Pavord and Donnelly, 2015). Better still the nurse would have emphasized that he touches the painful point. This is just but an illustration of how nurses can use non-verbal communication to enhance their communication with patients.

References

Arnold, E. C., & Boggs, K. U. (2019). Interpersonal Relationships E-Book: Professional Communication Skills for Nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences. https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/book/1921141/interpersonal-relationships-e-book/elizabeth-c-arnold/

Boyd, C., & Dare, J. (2014). Communication skills for nurses. John Wiley & Sons. https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Communication+Skills+for+Nurses-p-9781118767528

Grant, A., & Goodman, B. (2018). Communication and Interpersonal Skills in Nursing. Learning Matters. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286865858_Narrative_competence_A_neglected_area_in_undergraduate_curricula

Heath, S. (2018, Jan 5). Effective Nurse Communication Skills and Strategies. https://www.google.com/amp/s/patientengagementhit.com/features/amp/effective-nurse-communication-skills-and-strategies

Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC). (2018). The code: Professional standards of practice and behaviour for nurses, midwives and nursing associates. http://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/nmc-publications/revised-new-nmc-code.pdf

Omura, M., Maguire, J., Levett-Jones, T., & Stone, T. E. (2016). Effectiveness of assertive communication training programs for health professionals and students: a systematic review protocol. JBI database of systematic reviews and implementation reports, 14(10), 64-71. https://www.nursingcenter.com/journalarticle?Article_ID=3880781&Journal_ID=3425880&Issue_ID=3880282

Pavord, E., & Donnelly, E. (2015). Communication and interpersonal skills. Lantern Publishing. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.scionpublishing.com/book-images/samples/9781908625328sc.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjK4L6jxsfpAhXYAGMBHeOtCkcQFjABegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw0ZnJz7gNiQahF22NXD-dx6

Sibiya, M. N. (2018). Effective Communication in Nursing. Nursing, 19. https://www.intechopen.com/books/nursing/effective-communication-in-nursing