Community Nursing Assignment: Patient Education and Effective Communication

This essay explores a community nurse's experience in a patient education session involving a culturally diverse patient and the importance of effective communication and evidence-based practice in providing care and patient education.

Running head: COMMUNITY NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Community nursing assignment (Task 3)
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

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COMMUNITY NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Description:
As a community nurse I have had the opportunity to participate in a patient education
session involving a culturally diverse patient where the lack of effective communication has led
to negative consequences and had the potential to affect the patient safety and wellbeing of the
patient (Boud, Keogh and Walker 2013). This essay will attempt to explore my experience and
everything that I have learned from this experience which will help me in the future taking the
assistance of the Gibbs reflection frame work.
Description:
I had the opportunity to participate in a patient education plan involving an elderly
aboriginal patient who had sustained a fall while trying to climb the stairs and move to her room.
On further investigation is was discovered that the patient had been suffering from acute
osteoarthritis which was adequately managed with disease modifying drugs and pain
medications, however, the patient still complained about pain and stated that she had extreme
difficulties while moving and this had been the reason she fell as well. After she had been given
mild analgesia, the patient was called in for an educational session where she had been
complaining of acute pain and immediately wanted high-dose painkillers before her discharge
(Bulman and Schutz 2013). We attempted to convey to her that she can instead opt for mild
painkillers and non-pharmacological pain management techniques to which she had been
adamantly not agreeing to. The patient became extremely hyper and we could not contain her
although with the intervention by the nursing supervisor, the patient was calmed and effectively
managed.

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Feelings:
Firstly, this has been my first exposure to real world practice scenario, where I had the
chance to engage in patient education which is a fundamental part of the professional roles and
responsibilities of a community nurse. Hence, I had been very excited for being able to
communicate with the patient, along with that, I had also been very anxious pondering whether
or not I will be able to communicate with her properly or not. However, in the beginning of the
patient education session, I attempted to greet the patient warmly although, the rest of the team
members were not very compassionate in actively engaging the patient or properly
communicating with her. The conversation started smoothly and she had been responsive, I was
anxious regarding whether or not she will be able to understand us properly, but she had a
workable English language proficiency and understood things with clarity (O'hagan et al. 2014).
Although I felt the patient to be offended with our curt communication approach and soon she
was aggravated which really scared me. However, when we called our nursing supervisor I
observed her communication approach which was really calm and collected which eventually
calmed the patient as well.
Evaluation:
First and foremost, the patient education session according to my best understanding
began with a huge mistake where we failed to positively engage with the patient. It has to be
mentioned that patient engagement is a very important aspect of patient communication and it is
crucial for establishing the therapeutic relationship with the patient and providing the
communicational comfort to the patient so that she can actively communicate with us regarding

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her issues and preferences (Kourkouta and Papathanasiou 2014). In this case, our team directly
started with the educational training and failed to engage with the patient which offended her and
changed her behavior towards us. Along with that, we had not used the aid of evidence based
interventions to convince the patient of non-pharmacological pain management techniques.
Evidence based practice is a key tool for facilitating better patient understanding and smoothing
the communication process between the patient and the educator. In this case, if the evidence
data was shared with her explaining to her the benefits of the non-pharmacological pain
management techniques such as mindfulness based interventions, yoga, acupuncture, and
physiotherapeutic exercise for improving the range of motion of the knee, could be explained to
her statistical data, she could have understood with more clarity and ease (Riley 2015).
Analysis:
Cultural safety in nursing practice is intricately associated with different effective
communication (Douglas et al. 2014). The lack of proper approach, gesture and other related
nonverbal communication cues are the fundamental factors that can affect the nature of the
therapeutic relationship between the patient and the health care provider, in this case as well, the
lack of proper patient engagement and compassionate approach to the sufferings had been the
fundamental factor that contributed to the lack of success of the patient educational session.
Along with that the lack of evidence based practice while providing patient education had also
been a terrible error in the session which further aggravated the patient (Melnyk et al. 2014).
Analyzing the intervention of the nursing supervisor, she greeted the patient warmly and
prioritized her needs ad feeling maintaining eye contact and mild tone of voice, which
successfully calmed the agitated patient. Along with that, our supervisor has also used recent and

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valid literature evidence and used simple English terms that she can understand to communicate
about the benefits of the non-pharmacological modes of pain management, which the patient
slowly but eventually agreed to; further indicating the acute importance of evidence based
practice in patient education and communication (Hemsley, Balandin and Worrall 2012).
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, this has been an excellent opportunity for me to explore and
understand how to undertake a patient education session with a culturally diverse patient group. I
learned the importance of active patient engagement, establishing therapeutic and mutually
respectful relationship, compassionate and effective communication and evidence based practice
in providing care and patient education. I would be investing efforts in improving these qualities
further for my future practice.
Action plan:
First and foremost, I would enroll myself in a culturally safe communication
development course under the continuous professional development program to help with
improving my communication skills (Kourkouta and Papathanasiou 2014). I would also reach
out to my supervisor for further suggestions and details so that I can understand how to improve
my soft skills. I would also take the assistance of the web based resources to enhance my
knowledge and maintain a reflective journal keep track of my progress.

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References:
Boud, D., Keogh, R. and Walker, D., 2013. Reflection: Turning experience into learning.
Routledge.
Bulman, C. and Schutz, S. eds., 2013. Reflective practice in nursing. John Wiley & Sons.
Douglas, M.K., Rosenkoetter, M., Pacquiao, D.F., Callister, L.C., Hattar-Pollara, M.,
Lauderdale, J., Milstead, J., Nardi, D. and Purnell, L., 2014. Guidelines for implementing
culturally competent nursing care. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 25(2), pp.109-121.
Hemsley, B., Balandin, S. and Worrall, L., 2012. Nursing the patient with complex
communication needs: time as a barrier and a facilitator to successful communication in
hospital. Journal of advanced nursing, 68(1), pp.116-126.
Kourkouta, L. and Papathanasiou, I.V., 2014. Communication in nursing practice. Materia
socio-medica, 26(1), p.65.
Melnyk, B.M., Gallagher‐Ford, L., Long, L.E. and Fineout‐Overholt, E., 2014. The
establishment of evidence‐based practice competencies for practicing registered nurses and
advanced practice nurses in real‐world clinical settings: Proficiencies to improve healthcare
quality, reliability, patient outcomes, and costs. Worldviews on Evidence
‐Based Nursing, 11(1),
pp.5-15.

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O'hagan, S., Manias, E., Elder, C., Pill, J., Woodward‐Kron, R., McNamara, T., Webb, G. and
McColl, G., 2014. What counts as effective communication in nursing? Evidence from nurse
educators' and clinicians' feedback on nurse interactions with simulated patients. Journal of
advanced nursing, 70(6), pp.1344-1355.
Riley, J.B., 2015. Communication in nursing. Elsevier Health Sciences.