Essay Sample on Nurses: Enhancing Communication for Patient Care

Nurses have a role when it comes to patient care. The most essential role for nurses is having the ability to communicate effectively with patients and healthcare professionals. The effectiveness of communication in engagements between nurses and patients has an impact on a patient' outcomes. Thus, a nurse should consistently try to enhance his/her communication skills since poor communication can be fatal and can result to confusion. Communication is made up of verbal and nonverbal language (de Oliveira & Tuohy, 2015). In nursing, verbal, written and body language communication is necessary for optimal patient care and avoiding errors.

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Verbal Communication in Nursing

Verbal communication can be subdivided into formal written communications and informal communications that in everyday life. Written communication is mostly used in nursing when keeping good written records of the care offered to the patients so that they can ensure that care and treatment can continue to be administers in the right despite the staff that is on duty; to record care that has been administered to the patient and to ensure that there is reliable record that can be used as an assurance when there is an issue with the patient on the care that they received (Nickitas, 2019). This type of communication is permanent and thus can be used in legal defenses. It can as well be seen at any time. A clearly written details nursing not will provide a clear picture of the event to have the ability to evaluate and plan for the consistency of care leading to enhanced care for the client. Written messages can be in the form of emails, texts and social media texts to give essential information to the nurses.

Oral Communication in Nursing

Oral communication is necessary since nurses are always expected to be at the frontline of the care duties. Oral communication involves sharing of information with others using speech. Through the use of this communication there is stress of words and tone of voice are expressed. They are the first individuals that are in direct contact with the patient prior to them meeting the doctors. This is because nurses orally pass information through patient or family members that is mostly passed through them by the doctors. Good oral skills ensure that the information delivered to patients and their relatives is clear, accurate and honest and use the effective language based on the patient's culture, age group, as well as their understanding. Oral communication mainly aids in smoothening operations of healthcare functioning as they would want address in a respectful way (Mendonca et al., 2014).

Some of the advantages of oral communication include immediate response and clarification, portrays emotions and is more person. When offering comfort to the patient orally, trust can be established. When trust is developed better care can be provided since the patients have the chance to share their issues with the nurses. Among nurses oral communication is essential during report. When giving report speaking clearly will lead the nurse to identify and plan care for patient.

Non-Verbal Communication in Nursing

The nonverbal communication aids in clarifying message. The oral communication is mainly complimented by the non-verbal communication. The non-verbal communication can guide the nurses when giving care to the patients. This type of communication takes place without use of words, they include eye contact, gestures and posture as they communicate. The nurse's attitude and posture can impact a patient's thinking. For instance, when a nurse does not face the patient and does not maintain eye contact, the patient may get uncomfortable and develop fear towards the nurse. It is essential for a nurse to be familiar his/her nonverbal communication techniques, since it will determine how the nurses may choose to interact with the patient or colleague. Nonverbal communication techniques can be seen during verbal interaction or office procedure. Taking note of the patient's body language during an interaction may assist the nurse to gain the ability to give comfort quickly if required.

Barriers That Impact Communications in Nursing

In health care settings, communication in nursing can be distracted by various factors such as the multicultural barrier. People from different cultures have different beliefs. For instance, some patients believe that female nurses should be junior nurses. These assumptions and beliefs may result to misinterpretation or even assume what the nurse may be telling them (Ho & Coady, 2018). Language barriers can as well occur during communications in nursing. When the nurse and the patient do not have a common language, interaction between them is compromised. Due to this patient may not have the ability to understand the instructions on the way of taking treatment at home.Additionally, internal noise, metal and emotional distress can affect the communication in nursing. Fear and anxiety can impact the patient's capability to listen to what the nurse is saying. Individuals with feelings of fear and anger can have hard time trying to listen. This is because sickness and distress can distract an individuals' thoughts processes. Patients with difficulty in speech and hearing may as well pose a barrier to effective communication since the patient's brain parts that mostly allow a person to understand and produce speech has been affected. Similarly the care setting may lead to minimization in quality of nurse-patient communication. Too much workload restrict nurses from communicating the patients' issues efficiently. Nurses are expected to operate in busy environments in which they are expected to complete given amount of work daily. Their responsibilities are difficult, challenging and tiring. Insufficient collaboration between the nurses and the physician in information sharing may alter effective communication. Thus, these results to inconsistencies in the details offered to the patients thus making it hard for the patients to comprehend (Rodriguez, 2016).

Example of Communication in Nursing

There are many examples of communications in nursing. When a nurse does not look the patient in the eyes and does not maintain eye contact with the patient, it creates fear with the patient and the patient does not trust him/her. When a nurse greets a patients with a great smile aids in creating a rapport with the patient. Similarly, taking note of the patient's nonverbal communication during a discussion am assist a nurse to give comfort as fast as possible if required. Additionally, written information on an upcoming meeting or new orders gives accurate information that one can refer back to if need comes

Conclusion

Effective communication is essential in every clinical setting. From the discussion above there is more than one approach of interacting with patient in health care setting. It is essential for a nurse to improve his communication skills since it aids in providing excellent care to the patient as well as avoids errors. Nurses are required to adapt effective communication tools since they interpret and relay messages to healthcare physicians. However, promoting effective communication in healthcare is so challenging considering the nature of the working context. There are many barriers that interfere with the communication in nursing. Some of the barriers include the language barrier, cultural barriers and emotional distress thus it is essential for the nurses working in other places that are new to them to become conversant with the language, gain cultural awareness of the place and the sensitivity to make it easy for them to handle the patients.

References

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