How the Nurse would use Professional Communication to Ensure | Sample Nursing Assignment
Introduction
This assignment will review strategies by which nurses are required to communicate and collect data from patient to minimize stress and anxiety. Doreen Green is a 72-year-old patient admitted at the hospital emergency department and is suffering from dehydration. She lives alone but has a son who often visits her. She also owns and cares for a pet cat left home alone after Doreen was admitted to the emergency ward. She has demonstrated concern and anxiety about safety and wellbeing of her pet. This has led to her experiencing a restless night and a fall while using the toilet.She has raised the same concern with the medical staff during two shifts demonstrating the problem is genuine and needs to be addressed to help relax him, patient.
Patient Safety
As per guidelines published by (ANMAC, 2020) nurses need to maintain clear communication with patients to enhance safety. This applies with Doreen, who demonstrates anxiety relating to her pet cat. Considering she also has a 39-year-old son, it’s clear she has a close connection with her pet’s wellbeing(Ghahramanian, Rezaei, Abdullahzadeh, Sheikhalipour, & Dianat, 2017). Lack of clear communication between the medical professionals and patients are likely to result in the following issues.
Overlooking critical information
It is essential to document the patients’ needs, and concern irrespective of your view as the point may bear immense importance for the patient(Pfrimmer, Johnson, Guthmiller, Lehman, Ernste, & Rhudy, 2017). This has been observed with Doreen, who has repeated raising concern over her cat’s wellbeing and led to the patient experiencing a restless night and fall.
Misinterpreting information
There is also a threat to patient safety when information has been misinterpreted, leading to medical professionals over looking the story that bears great significance. This was observed among the staff attending Doreen, who mistook the importance of her concern about her pet cat, which has led the patient to experience further problems.
Person-Centred Care
Communication also forms the foundation towards building relationships between the patients and medical professionals. This makes communication and an important aspect that will create a connection between the patient and medical attendants(Haydon, Browne, & van der Riet, 2018). Patient-centred care must take the following elements into close consideration to ensure patients have the best experience.
Empathy towards patient perspectives
Two-way communications are essential between patients and caregivers. This makes it necessary for medical professionals to collect health-related information and statistics and personal information and concerns from the patient. This is observed in Doreen’s case, where she has been continually raising concern about her pet. Still, none of the nurses has intervened to help comfort the patients and encourage recovery(Levett-Jones, et al., 2017).
Understanding of patient problems and possible remedies
Her caregiver was responsible for identifying the patient’s concern as genuine and discussing the matter with the patient to comfort her. The attending nurse must follow up with Doreen regarding the pet and make arrangements for the pet to be cared for by Doreen’s son while she is admitted in the hospital. It is a caregiver ethical obligation to ensure the patient’s concerns are discussed and comforting solutions to encourage relaxation and quick recovery.
Developing a Therapeutic Relationship with the Patient
Effective communication is a crucial element towards developing a strong repute relationship between the healthcare provider and patients. This makes it essential to observe and follow specific rules that will ensure positive communication between the patient and caregiver, which is likely to affect the patient’s treatment and recovery rate positively(Agarwal, 2018). Some essential elements linked to developing a therapeutic relationship with a patient are discussed below:
Self-Introduce to patients
It is essential to treat a patient’s humanly and respect in the same way you would treat any other person. This makes it necessary for the healthcare professional to tend to the patient to introduce themselves to the patients formally. It is also essential to request the patient to introduce themselves. The healthcare professionals must use good greeting gestures when meeting the patients for the first time as this encouraging trust and respect between the patient and healthcare professionals.
Maintain patient privacy
It is essential to understand that patients are likely to share personal and confidential information with their healthcare provider and caregiver during their treatment. This makes it very important for each healthcare professional to maintain a strict patient privacy policy and not share personal information without prior consent(Norcross & Wampold, 2018). Failing to maintain patient privacy is likely to lose patient trust, which is expected to have a negative effect on the patient’s treatment and recovery.
Actively listen to patients.
“One of the most sincere forms of respect is listening to what another has to say.” –Bryant H.
This rule also applies to healthcare professionals and caregivers as the patient may prefer to confide and share their personal experience, concerns and fears. This information needs to be documented and used to assist the patient during their treatment and recovery. It is essential to listen to the patient and be empathetic but focus on helping the patient recover instead of offering sympathy.
Eye contact
To establish a strong relationship with the patient, the healthcare professionals need to maintain eye contact with the patient which communicating. This demonstrates interest, understanding and the healthcare professionals confidence and preparedness to intervene and assist the patient when possible. Healthcare professionals who do not maintain eye contact demonstrate lack of interest towards the patient, which is likely to lose the patients confidence which will hamper relations between patient and health professionals.
Maintain professional boundaries.
It is also essential for health professionals to listen and be empathetic towards the patient’s concerns. Still, at the same time, it’s also necessary to maintain professional boundaries. The healthcare professional must not indulge in personal discussions which are likely to mislead the patient(Valente, 2017).
Conclusion
Professional communication strategies are an essential aspect each nurse must understand and build relationships with the patients. It is necessary to listen and identify concerns raised by a patient and act on them to help reduce patient anxiety andimprove treatment. By understanding patients’ concerns, the patient builds trust with the nurse, which significantly improves the relationship and recovery towards medicine.
References
Agarwal, V. (2018). Re‐conceptualizing pain through patient‐centred care in the complementary and alternative medicine therapeutic relationship. Journal of advanced nursing, 74(10), 2406-2415 retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jan.13734.
ANMAC. (2020). Consultation response. Australian nursing and midwifery Accreditation Cousil, https://www.anmac.org.au/sites/default/files/documents/viccnmosubmissioncons2.pdf.
Ghahramanian, A., Rezaei, T., Abdullahzadeh, F., Sheikhalipour, Z., & Dianat, I. (2017). Quality of healthcare services and its relationship with patient safety culture and nurse-physician professional communication. Health promotion perspectives, 7(3), 168 retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5497369/.
Haydon, G., Browne, G., & van der Riet, P. (2018). Narrative inquiry as a research methodology exploring person centred care in nursing. Collegian, 25(1), 125-129 retieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1322769617300525.
Levett-Jones, T., Lapkin, S., Govind, N., Pich, J., Hoffman, K., Jeong, S., et al. (2017). Measuring the impact of a ‘point of view’disability simulation on nursing students’ empathy using the Comprehensive State Empathy Scale. Nurse education today, 59, 75-81 retieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0260691717302174.
Norcross, J., & Wampold, B. (2018). A new therapy for each patient: Evidence‐based relationships and responsiveness. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 74(11), 1889-1906 retieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jclp.22678.
Pfrimmer, D., Johnson, M., Guthmiller, M., Lehman, J., Ernste, V., & Rhudy, L. (2017). Surveillance: A nursing intervention for improving patient safety in critical care environment. Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing, 36(1), 45-52 retrieved from https://journals.lww.com/dccnjournal/Abstract/2017/01000/Surveillance__A_Nursing_Intervention_for_Improving.9.aspx.
Valente, S. (2017). Managing professional and nurse–patient relationship boundaries in mental health. Journal of psychosocial nursing and mental health services, 55(1), 45-51 retrieved from https://www.healio.com/psychiatry/journals/jpn/2017-1-55-1/%7Bf26af816-c09a-44eb-8bb5-2909d6684d9e%7D/managing-professional-and-nursepatient-relationship-boundaries-in-mental-health.