Effective Communication in Nursing

Running head: EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
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EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
Introduction:
In order to provide efficient nursing care services to patients, every nursing professionals
should master the skills of effective communication, patient centered care and the technique of
documentation. These three aspects of the nursing practice results in higher levels of patient
satisfaction along with better rapport development with patients making them feel comfortable
and empowered in the healthcare environment. These aspects also help in ensuring higher patient
involvement and higher coordination along with the professionals in their own care (Hill, Hall &
Glew, 2014). This assignment will show how three aspects of effective communication, patient
centered care and the technique of documentation would enable effective patient care and patient
satisfaction. This assignment would mainly analyze case study of Chester and would show how
the three above mentioned components of high quality nursing care can be applied to ensure
positive health outcomes of Chester and higher level of satisfaction in Chester.
Discussion:
Therapeutic communication can be defined as the procedure of communicating with
patients with the aim of helping the patient to feel that his or her sufferings are well-understood
by the professionals and that they are trying their best to alleviate their sufferings. It is basically a
face to face communication procedure focusing on emotional and physical well-being of the
patient and ensuring all the needs of the patient are met as per their expectations (Hill, Hall &
Glew, 2014). Apart from verbal communication that mainly depends on spoken words, non-
verbal communication skills that are involved in therapeutic communication like tone, facial
expressions, touch, silence, body language and many others. It has been found that effective
communication ultimately helps in rapport development with the patient thereby forming a

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EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
strong emotional bond with the patient. Effective communication helps in developing mutual
trust and respect with the patient which increases patient coordination with the nurses in care
planning process (NMBA, 2017). Therapeutic relationship development has positive impact on
health outcomes of the patient and increases their adherence to the treatment. Studies have also
found that therapeutic communication helps in empowering the patients making them to develop
self-coping abilities and self management skills as well (Weber & Farrell, 2016). With effective
therapeutic communication, nurses can help in creating a non-judgmental environment where
they overcame any fear, stress and anxiety and interact with professionals openly. This is also
seen to help the patients in revealing important information which can be found to be helpful in
the treatment procedures. The nurse should maintain a body posture that shows open stance
making Chester feel that she is there to help him with his every need. Nigerian young adults are
comfortable with eye contacts unlike older adults and hence, nurses can maintain eye contact
with him while communicating with him. Nigerian people prefer humor and hence nurses can
include humor with Chester to make him feel comfortable and friendly with the environment.
Nigerian people are not supporters of individualistic worldview like that of Australians. They are
seen to put their families and communities above their personal health (Weber & Farrell, 2016).
In case of Chester, it can be seen that he is living alone in the nation and misses his family very
much. The nurse should use this opportunity during therapeutic communication to exhibit his
empathy and compassion to the situation. Empathy makes the patients feel that nurses genuinely
feel for their concerns and that they would try to alleviate their suffering (Campbell et al., 2017).
Again, health literacy of Chester is found to be quite poor as he is not aware of the importance of
physical activities and exercises in life and tend to spend sedentary life. Moreover, he is also
seen to take foods which have fats and high levels of carbohydrates that have the risk of