Significance of Effective Communication for Registered Nurses in the Healthcare Setting

This paper highlights the importance of effective communication for registered nurses in the healthcare setting and discusses strategies for verbal and non-verbal communication. It also explores the barriers to effective communication and their impact on patient care.

Running head: COMMUNICATION ASSIGNMENT PAPER 1
Communication Assignment Paper
Student’s Name
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COMMUNICATION ASSIGNMENT PAPER 2
Communicating effectively is a crucial aspect in the nursing domain. As an illustration,
communication can be termed as the exchange of information between individual. Conversely,
communication abilities with patients are among the basics in the healthcare setting.
Considerable knowledge of verbal and non-verbal communication techniques is required
accordingly to achieve effective communication amongst the nurse and patient. The nurses
should, therefore, have great communications techniques to achieve patient trust and
understanding.
The nurses are required to always make very informative interactions with patents to give
them a good environment. This paper will, therefore, dwell on the significance of effective
communication for the registered nurses in the healthcare setting. Furthermore, it will also cover
the effective verbal communication strategies which the registered nurses have to employ to
support a safe and caring nursing practice (Brooks & Arkin, 2017). Lastly, this paper will
highlight the non-verbal communication behaviors which could be a barrier to effective
communication between the registered nurses and the patient (Miller, Murphy & Mirsky, 2015).
The highlighted below is the significance of effective communication for registered
nurses in the healthcare setting. The first one is that good communication helps patients to feel
easy about their health. Having a good communication for registered nurses can help patients
reduce their anxiety and even build confidence. Effective communication can also reduce the
medical errors thus creating a difference in the outcomes (Hagerty & Patusky, 2015).
Communicating effectively within the healthcare setting can also help the nurses to
understand the patient experiences. Accordingly, effective communication assists patients to feel
in control. The patients can feel hopeless and helpless if they lose control which might reduce

COMMUNICATION ASSIGNMENT PAPER 3
their chances of recovery from illness. However, good communication can help them feel they
still have a say and in charge of their lives (Miller, Murphy & Mirsky, 2015). `
The report from STAT indicates that poor communication resulted in almost 1700 deaths.
However, it adds that miscommunication during patient exchange added a great percentage of
serious errors (Paavilainen & Åstedt‐Kurki, 2015). Good communication and patient satisfaction,
safety, and recovery has a very powerful relationship as per the latest evidence-based research.
Putting this into consideration, it implies if the nurses can listen and provide a better explanation
to the patients, then they can avoid unnecessary emergencies like wrong medication along with
severe health complications to patients. It also promotes a smooth and positive working
connection in the healthcare setting (Kahn, 2015).
Studies also indicate that when nurses fail to communicate effectively, patients usually
suffer most. However, if all the healthcare team members can communicate well, then the
positive patient outcome can easily be achieved and avoid sudden death, human errors along
with malpractice which can result in complications of patient’s disease and lastly chaos in the
healthcare setting at large (Manser & Foster, 2016).
Poor communications can result in errors and misunderstanding. In that case, everyone in
the healthcare setting should communicate effectively. In that case, a nurse who can effectively
communicate bad news with the patient in a proper manner can improve and strengthen their
nurse-patient relationship. Furthermore, keeping the patient from becoming frustrated with a
nurse can be handled efficiently if everybody communicates effectively and all explanations to
the patient should be made clear (Sheldon, Barrett & Ellington, 2016).

COMMUNICATION ASSIGNMENT PAPER 4
Verbal communication can be termed as the form of language which can be formal or
informal. It is usually associated with spoken words and is vitally important in the healthcare
context. However, communication is generally vital in every aspect of the nursing field. In that
case, a great understanding of effective communication is typically crucial for productive
communication. Verbal communication in nursing is an essential and primary procedure (Roche
et al., 2015).
The first verbal strategy is focusing on the issue and not the patient. This usually builds
the nurse-patient relation more secure and hence establishes faith amongst them. The nurse
should therefore not take everything personally.
Using affirmative responses is the second strategy that registered nurses can employ to
give a caring nursing practice. In this case, the nurses should respond to patients in ways which
can acknowledge how they feel. The nurse should ask questions and show positive feelings even
if he/she disagrees. Furthermore, it usually enables nurses to completely connect with the
patients. Accordingly, nurses require to have the mindfulness to relate to the patient's experience.
(Manser & Foster, 2016).
The third strategy is Empathy. This can be described as being of another person’s
feelings and probably understanding another person’s perspective. On the other hand, this can be
described as the act of acknowledging the emotions of a patient without experiencing that state.
It is a vital nurse behavior that is critical in providing care. Patients usually expect the nurses to
show the realization of their troubles and compassion. Empathy often results in better patient
outcome. There is a research which says that patients usually have better outcomes when they are
handled by the nurses with a high degree of empathy. Empathy in nurses also results in better

COMMUNICATION ASSIGNMENT PAPER 5
patient compliance. There is always a build in trust which in turn makes patients to follow the
nurses’ recommendations of taking drugs as prescribed and making positive lifestyle changes.
The non-verbal communications do not involve spoken language. As an illustration, it
only comprises of gestures, facial expressions, and body positions all together referred to as body
language. The way of nurses’ nonverbal communications is can either make or break her when
she is about to report the patient (Murphy, 2015). For example. Let’s say that you are about to say
a speech and you come in with a sagging posture or your face looks like it has no enthusiasm in it.
When you start to give your speech, you don’t give eye contact, and your voice sounds lazy. Your
audience looks at that like you don't care. However, sometimes it’s more effective than the words
which are spoken. Majority of the behaviors are said to be non-verbal, and they usually give
clues to feelings and emotions that patients may be experiencing. The two non-verbal
communication behaviors which could act as the barrier to effective communication are as
highlighted below (Forchuk, 2015).
The first barrier is silence which is simply lack of expression that sends a message to the
patient and this can create communication barrier amongst the nurse and the patient. Silence can
also be a threatening tool so as to disregard another person’s need for communication (Vasse et
al., 2015). The destructive silence may also shut down the communication and creates barriers
which discourage speakers from expressing their thoughts. In non-verbal communication, the
message being communicated may be misinterpreted by the receiver, and therefore one should be
careful on the signs they use during communication. Maintaining eye contact is a strategy used in
non-verbal communication to convey for instance seriousness of the message (Forchuk &
Brown, 2014).

COMMUNICATION ASSIGNMENT PAPER 6
The second barrier of non-verbal communication is the body movement. As an
illustration, the body movements can complement the verbal messages by reinforcing main ideas
which might easily affect the patient's ability to understand instructions from the physicians. In
that case, the nurse can say the right thing but the message might be lost if the body movement
suggests she is having something different in mind. In the case of body posture, if the nurse
delivers a message then seems to be in hurry then this might imply something different to the
patient. Accordingly, if the nurse is delivering a message to the patient with crossed arms or
flicking eyes towards a different direction then that will also affect communication between the
two.
The other form of body language is facial expression. In this case, the nurse should
always control her facial expression while delivering a message to the patient. Different facial
experience might indicate things are worsening or not okay.
Conclusion
In summary, communication is an important aspect that is essential for nurses in the
healthcare setting. Accordingly, effective communication is always very challenging and
demanding. This paper has therefore highlighted the effective strategies of verbal communication
that nurses can employ to administer comfortable care to patients. Some of the strategies that
nurses should utilize in supporting a nursing practice that safe and caring are empathy, Focusing
on the main issue and also using affirmative responses. The paper also highlighted the non-
verbal communication behaviors that might be barriers to effective communication in the
healthcare setup which are silence and body movement.

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