The communication and collaboration between nurses and physicians reflect on the patients’ well-being and recovery process. Effective communication is an important aspect when practicing nursing. It enhances good relationship amongst nurses and patients along with their coworkers. As a competent nurse, you should take your time and pay attention to your patient’s needs and requests so that you are able to solve any issues that may arise for a better outcome. Contrary, poor communication skills cause misunderstanding between patients and nurses and can lead to workflow delays and breakdowns and medical errors. Patients who feel confident in their nurses tend to be more transparent about their true symptoms.
Types of communication skills in nursing
For a nurse to understand a patient’s needs and concerns, they must have excellent communication skills. These skills are as discussed below:
1. Verbal communication
This is a type of communication that relies on words. This is the most important type of communication in a healthcare setting because nurses rely on the verbal information to understand what the patient is suffering from. In case you feel troubled, be careful with your tone when talking to patients and do not show a patient to know you are stressed. Always speak in clear, concise and accurate sentences and motivate your patients to speak openly.
2. Nonverbal communication
This type of communication does not rely on words but is relayed through body language or writing. This communication can either pass true information or give wrong impressions because the signs may mean something different than what would have been orally spoken. However, nonverbal communication often sends stronger messages than verbal communication. Some nonverbal cues include: facial expressions, gestures, body posture, physical outlook and body contact. Smiling, nodding your head and maintaining eye contact shows the patient that you are paying attention to them. Do not stare and avoid using threatening body language that may scare the patient.
3. Listen actively
Listening actively simply means listening to acknowledge your patients’ predicament. This skill requires total attention, cooperation and engagement is practiced by all health care provider so they can create a good rapport with their patients and fellow staff.
4. Written communication
Written communication is applicable within co-nurses as they ae required to keep updating a patient’s record. The medical record should be 100% accurate to ensure patients are well taken care of. Remember to maintain patient’s confidential by noting the patient’s care plan and maintaining accuracy in their report.
5. Patient teach back
Patient teach back includes teaching patients about their health conditions, medication and treatment plans. You can request a patient to repeat the directions you gave them to see if they understood the protocols. This method of communication allows patients to have a better understanding and encourages them to follow instruction as directed. Lack of understanding can make relatives administer wrong dosage to patients and make them anxious.
6. Effective presentation
This type of communication is common when nurses are handing over patients to other healthcare providers. To ease the work of the healthcare provider, it is advisable to: plan your presentation appropriately, consider adding visuals for better understanding and know your audience so you are aware of how to draft your presentation.
7. Building trust
Build trust with your patient by listening to their complaints attentively and taking the necessary action. Building trust makes scared and uncomfortable patients to feel at ease. To build trust you should always be truthful, open and always accept correction. Trust should also be developed between nurses as they train the incoming generation of healthcare providers.
8. Enhance personal connections
Building a personal relationship with a patient makes them feel safe and cared for and improves their recovery process and develop trust. To build personal relationships, you can consider spending extra time with patients to know them better or show them you are interested in knowing more about them.
9. Compassion
Compassion is an important skill in health because it helps the patient recover faster from illnesses that may have been chronic and relieve their anxiety. Compassion can be shown by understanding a patient’s needs.
Ways to improve your communication skills
If your communication skills are not excellent, you can use the following tips to enhance them:
- Portray empathy and ensure you understand you patient
- Listen attentively without interrupting
- Avoid giving information you are unsure about.
- Use the appropriate body language to show the patient that you are concerned, maintain eye contact and touch them if possible
- Ensure your patient’s environment is quiet
- Give patients full attention when having a conversation
- Convince your patient about the factual information you are providing
Conclusion
Effective communication in the health industry is an important factor that contributes positively to a conducive working environment and wellness of patients. Nurses with good communication skills are always confident with their work as they engage with patients. Excellent communication skills can make you successful in your nursing career. Since nurses deal with people from different cultural and social settings, it is essential to be effective and professional when communicating with their patients. The quality of communication between patients and nurses affects the outcome of the patients and smooth running of the facility. A nurse should try to perfect their communication skills more often.
FAQs
1. Why is communication essential in healthcare?
Effective communication enables patients to have positive experience and feel safe. It also ensures nurses and healthcare providers create a good rapport with patients and within themselves to provide a conducive working environment for the betterment of the facility.
2. What are the available barriers to effective communication?
Effective communication in nurses is affected by lack of privacy and background noise, while communication in patients may be affected by their illnesses, anxiety and pain.
3. How do you deal with communication barriers?
Communication barrier can be curbed by: using a language your patient can understand, relay a short and precise message and ensuring the communication timeline is good.
4. Does noise affect communication?
Yes. Noise is a barrier in communication because it causes the receiver not to hear the message and causes the sender not to be able to relay the message effectively.