Paper Example on Therapeutic Communication: An Essential Concept for Nursing Practice

1. Concept analysis

Concept analysis is an essential factor in the nursing practice because it influences perceptions of nursing practitioners towards their relationship with the patients. Also, analysis of various nursing concepts improves their nursing skills. An aspect selected for this assignment is therapeutic communication. It is a collection of multiple communication techniques used for analyzing the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of clients. It is the responsibility of nurses to provide adequate information to their patients, aiming to maintain a professional and objective relationship (Riley, 2015). According to interpersonal relations theory, quality of nursing care depends on the collaborative and productive relationship between nurses and care users. Through therapeutic communication, nurses build a strong working relationship with the clients based on mutual respect and responsibility. The research paper provides a detailed definition of the concept, literature review, antecedent and consequence, empirical reference, construct cases, theoretical application of the idea, and finally a summary of the entire concept paper.

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2. Concept Definition

Therapeutic communication is a process that involves face-to-face interaction between nurses and patients, aiming to advance the emotional and physical well-being of the patients. It helps nurses to provide detailed information to patients that help them improve their communication with the care providers. For nurses to build a lasting and professional relationship with their clients, they must use different communication techniques to incorporate the needs of all stakeholders involved (Riley, 2015). Techniques that enhance the relationship between a patient and a nurse include active listening, broad openings, accepting and understanding the patient before judging and clarification. Other strategies include interpretation and focus, as well as objectivity. For example, restating patient words differently would help to confirm the exact words and what the patient means to avoid making the wrong judgment. A combination of these techniques promotes accurate information sharing and stakeholder engagement; thus, improving the nursing practice.

3. Literature Review

Communication is an essential element in nursing practice. It does not only create a respectful and objective relationship but also promotes respect and human dignity. There is a communication impede when a patient views a nurse as an individual who has power and control over communication. It becomes a barrier to communication the moment patients develop this perception since they will not be interested in getting involved in the practice (Gault, Shapcott & Luthi, 2016). However, nurses can eliminate this barrier by ensuring face to face communication with clients and inform them that they are part of the nursing process. Facial expressions can help to understand the reaction of the patients, signaling crucial information. Therefore, a combination of various communication styles is required in the nursing practice to support accurate information sharing with patients.

On the other hand, therapeutic communication is vital in nursing practice because of medical treatments that create a communication barrier (Riley, 2015). For example, medications such as sedation and intubation are the most significant barrier to verbal communication. Such patients will not send a verbal signal to nurses but can interpret verbal messages if any sent to them (Maame, Amoah, Anokye, Boakye & Gyamfi, 2017). They can send written or non-verbal communication messages to nursing practitioners, alerting them of anything they want. In this regard, therapeutic communication is helpful when it comes to communication in nursing practice since it uses various channels of information sharing so that they can be on the same page.

Additionally, nurses use therapeutic communication to support their clients. The first technique is active and attentive listening. This means more than just keeping silent as one party talk. It involves understanding the words patients use, analyze, and interpret them before responding (Adistie, Suzana, Nurhidayah & Hendrawati, 2018). Comprehending these words help to understand the situation of the patients for effective treatment. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid barriers to active listening like noise and multi-tasking.

There is also focusing strategy. It facilitates the ability of nurses to pay attention to particular issues regarding matters at hand. In some cases, patients or nurses may use the time of professional relationship to talk about things not related to nurses or the healthcare situation (Abdolrahimi, Ghiyasvandian, Zakerimoghadam & Ebadi, 2017). In this situation, the focusing technique is the best way to promote communication since it enables nurses to pay attention to matters at hand. Nurses will take this opportunity to educate nurses about their healthcare plan and their obligations.

Further, nurses should use open-ended questions compared to closed questions. The communication technique contributes to gathering full information. It is particularly vital when a nurse wants to gather detailed information to understand the patient better (Abdolrahimi et al., 2017). There is also exploration communication technique that encourages clients to provide more details regarding a particular issue, and this improves the partnership relationship that helps to solve healthcare problem at hand.

4. Defining Attributes

The first attribute of therapeutic communication is that it focuses on building a patient relationship. It involves interpersonal communication between nurses and healthcare providers. The purpose of interaction is to help patients and support the ability of nurses to provide quality healthcare services (Riley, 2015). A relationship between nurses and patients determine the quality of healthcare. A communication breakdown leads to a wrong diagnosis, leading to the provision of wrong medication. Therefore, it focuses on building a professional and objective relationship.

Additionally, therapeutic communication involves various communication channels to ensure no communication breakdown between nurses and service users. It includes verbal and non-verbal communication styles, such as therapeutic touch (Gault et al., 2016). Examples of therapeutic communication include active listening, facial expression, and using open-end questions. The last attribute of therapeutic communication is public communication. It is the communication style that involves nurses and a general audience. Nurses are required to use communication styles, such as eye contact and gestures for effective information sharing.

5. Antecedent and Consequence

One of the antecedents of therapeutic communication is lack of physical readiness to engage in conversation. In some situation, patients can suffer from severe illness, prompting a long hospitalization. It affects negative feelings of the patients and their moods to engage in professional communication with the nurses (Abdolrahimi et al., 2017). The negative attitudes interrupt communication with nurses. Also, physical problems such as fatigue contribute to the breakdown in communication. It is always true that patients are prepared for illness. It surprises affecting their ability to communicate effectively. Moreover, during an emergency, it is difficult to apply different communication styles because of the crisis involved.

The outcome of this antecedent is that there is that it leads to communication breakdown. For instance, patients will not be in a position to engage in face-to-face communication (Abdolrahimi et al., 2017). Nurses will use alternative communication techniques to diagnose the patients, although this can lead to wrong diagnosis. It is vital to ensure effective communication takes place to avoid conflict of interest. Nurses should always find a way of solving communication barriers like engaging siblings if the patient cannot share information.

6. Empirical Referents

A checklist would help to evaluate and understand the application of therapeutic communication. For example, there is a list of questions used to assess the ability of student nurses to use therapeutic communication when treating their patients (Abdolrahimi et al., 2017). The checklist shows the extent to which nurses used a variety of communication styles while offering services to the patients. They tick where necessary, and the list would give way to understanding appropriate recommendations for improvement.

Moreover, the relationship between patients and nurses can also help to refer the presence of therapeutic communication in the healthcare set-up. There will be no professional and objective relationship between nurses and patients if there is no therapeutic communication (Abdolrahimi et al., 2017). Therefore, satisfaction levels of patients and the link would indicate the presence of therapeutic communication. It is through effective communication that patients get engaged to provide detailed information about their health backgrounds and the current situation.

7. Constructing Cases

Model case

Ms. J, a nursing student, loves interacting and sharing with patients even when she is not being assessed. She goes to different rooms, greeting patients, and introducing herself using kind words. She asks patients about their problems, and keenly identifies their reactions. She responds by trying to solve their issues where possible. Moreover, she is fond of reading and always asks her instructor to develop their knowledge and respond to issues facing patients. She respects patients as well as their culture. She understands that therapeutic communication is part of her professional roles and tries to solve barriers to communication with patients. Therefore, patients love and trust her.

Borderline Case

Ms. B, a student nurse, works part-time in a healthcare center. She understands therapeutic communication, but it is difficult for her to communicate with patients effectively. She gets tired for working entire night, and she thinks that patients do not trust her. She rarely interacts with patients, and would not ask patients any more questions if they are not interested. She prefers working in female patients and sometimes mixes hot and good-tempered patients without involving them. In this regard, the nurse lacks necessary communication skills, such as being a good listener and persuasive skills.

Contrary Case

Mr. B, a nursing practitioner, is too shy to interact with patients. She lacks basic knowledge like giving patients advice about their dietary requirements and nutrition. Patients do not trust him and rarely engage him. He could not accept her patients and sometimes could pick arguments with them. He has knowledge and skills to guide patients, but does not answer their questions because of tiredness. He refers patients to doctors and does not always introduce himself. It is evident that the patient lacks common therapeutic communication attributes such as being confident, failure to use different communication styles and failure to build interpersonal relationship.

8. Theoretical Application of the Concept

Therapeutic communication is a cornerstone of the nursing practice. It fosters a patient-nurse relationship. It gives patients confidence so that they understand that they have an active role to play in the nursing practice (Gault et al., 2016). Also, it fosters the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of patients, while it improves nurses' ability to provide quality healthcare services. Lack of information sharing could lead to a conflict of interest between patients and nurses.

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