Critical Analysis of the Medical Incident

Critical analysis of the medical incident
Statement 1
Introduction
Communication is a vital tool for the interaction between inter professional team. Quality
nursing care is possible with the effective communication among the nurses and with the
other health professionals. Prompt communication is essential skill that every nurse should
carry while caring for the sick (Kourkouta, 2014). Ineffective communication skill affects the
flow of information that affects the quality of nursing care. Documentation is written
communication commonly used in the health profession. Inaccuracy in documentation affects
the nursing care and safety of the patient. This assessment helps to do critically analyse the
incident which involves the analysis of, interpersonal communication between the nurses and
responsibility of the Nurse within their extent of practice while caring for sick (Chichirez,
2018). Critical analysis of the incident educates the nurse about the importance of
interpersonal communication and accountability in nursing care.
Therapeutic communication in nursing practice
Therapeutic communcation is an essential means of sharing information in nursing practice.
A nurse is the only health professional communicates all the other health professionals with
patient and patient’s family. A nurse maintains the integrity of communication to provide
quality nursing care. Interaction among the health professionals for the purpose of health
promotion and prevention of complications results in the speedy recovery of the patients. In
the case, health professionals were not aware of the elements of effective therapeutic
communication which leads to death of Mr. Roy Jacob (Campbell, 2017).

Elements of therapeutic communication
Elements of therapeutic communication are verbal communication, non-verbal
communication, listening, good observation, focusing, summarizing, providing an
explanation, and trust. Implementation of the elements of therapeutic communication in
nursing practice brings out dual benefit both for the patient and nurse (NMBA, 2016). The
patient is benefited with the quality nursing care and the nurse is benefited with learning and
improves professionally within the scope of practice. In the case, of Mr. Roy, Nurses and the
health professionals involved in the patient care were negligence in implementing the
elements of therapeutic communication (Nayebi, 2015). Critical analysis of each element
within the scope of nursing practice with the support of peer viewed literature journals and
research study benefits in improving the communication and accountability in nursing
practice.
Oral communication
Oral communication is used in nursing practice, to collect the patient’s past and present
medical history if the patient is conscious. This element of communication includes the nurse
using open ended questions to collect subjective data from the patient. Oral communication
provides data to plan and implement nursing care (Sheldon, 2015). In the case of Mr. Roy, he
verbally expressed the pain over the left chest and shortness of breath. he also verbalized
associated symptoms to Nurse. But the nurse did not apply verbal communication during
nursing care. She ignores explaining the treatment plan to the patient and his family.
According to the standard 6 of NSQHS Standards the nurse should acquire effective verbal
communication skill for the health promotion of the patient.
Non-verbal communication

Most common communication in nursing practice is non-verbal communication. The nurse
interacts with the patient’s with using words but with her/his body language, posture, eye
contact and facial- expressions. The nurse should apply non-verbal communication in patient
care and she/he should understand the non-verbal communications of the patient (Sheldon,
2015). In Roy’s case, he was expressing both verbally and non verbally about the pain due to
rib fracture which was initially ignored by the nursing staff and the doctor. It is the primary
duty of the nurse to express and to understand the non-verbal communication of the patient.
Strategies to improve the non-verbal communication in nursing practice are maintaining eye
contact, use genuine body posture and use stable facial expressions.
Listening
Listening is an effective tool which helps the nurse to find the physical and psychological
problems of the patient. Listening builds trust and improves the interpersonal relationship
between the nurse and the patient. Listening is part of nursing care. In the case of Roy, he
was repeatedly expressing the pain, verbalising that he wanted to get admitted for alcohol
detoxification, but the nurse ignored his expressions and she did not interested to gain more
information from the patient (Day,2018). The nurse misunderstood and misinterpreted the
patient to wish for admitting in alcohol detoxification. He was clinically deteriorating; still he
was trying to speak out on his medical symptoms and treatment plan. Due to absence of
listening nature, the nurse was unable to rule out patient’s condition and act promptly.
Maintenance of eye contact, leaning forward when patient want to communicate, nodding the
head as a response and using proper tones and modulation are the Strategies of listening
prevents the medical errors.
Exceptional observation