Communication Skills for Nurses and Midwives

Running Head: COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR NURSES AND MIDWIVES
COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR NURSES AND MIDWIVES
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Running Head: COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR NURSES AND MIDWIVES
Part 1: Define patient education and discuss two key challenges of implementing patient
education in nursing
Patient Education
The system of education provided by health experts to inform patients about
various ailments that they can be affected by and helping them to identify them is known as
Patient Education (London, 2016).Patient Education helps a patient to improve his/her
understanding of medical condition, disease and disability. Effective communication and
patient education motivates employees to respond well to their treatment plans .Moreover,
patient education provides patients with the information they need and medical services are
effectively utilized. Nurses have an important role in Patient Education. They need to build
a rapport with patients and adjust their teaching strategies to fit the patient’s preferences.
Thus, in healthcare management, nurses play an important role in patient education
(London, 2016). Patient Education should be provided by qualified nurses having good
command and erudition over their respective field of training management. (Flanders,
2018).
According to Flanders (2018), there are five basic steps involved in the process of patient
education. These are:
a) Assessing learning needs- it includes finding out what patients already know, what
they want and need to learn, what they are capable of learning, and what would be the
best way to teach them .Availability of resources determine goals and objectives of
the learning process (Flanders,2018)

Running Head: COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR NURSES AND MIDWIVES
b) Diagnosis-According to The North American Nursing Diagnosis Association
(NANDA), a nursing diagnosis is a clinical judgement about responses to actual or
potential health problems on part of patients .It involves Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs which includes :
1. Basic physiological needs such as nutrition , elimination, sleep and shelter.
2. Safety and Security such as injury prevention and fostering trust and safety.
3. Love and belonging such as therapeutic communication and encouraging active
listening techniques.
4. Self-esteem such as acceptance in society and sense of empowerment.
5. Self-actualization such as empowering environment.
c) Planning –Here, goals and outcomes are formulated which affect patient care. Care
plans are developed which enhance communication , documentation and
reimbursement .The planning goals should be specific, meaningful, attainable,
realistic and time-oriented.
d) Implementation- This step involves carrying out of nursing interventions which are
direct or indirect care , medical administration and standard treatment protocols.
e) Evaluation-This final step involves reassessment or evaluation of the above steps by
the patient to ensure whether the desired outcome has been met.