Effective Communication in Nursing: Importance of Listening, Questioning and Body Language

This article discusses the importance of effective communication in nursing and how listening, questioning and body language can enhance patient safety and satisfaction. It also provides examples of situations where poor communication skills have led to negative outcomes. The article is relevant for nursing students and professionals and covers the subject of communication in nursing.

Running head: EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN NURSING
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN NURSING
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Importance of active listening in nursing:.......................................................................................2
Importance of questioning in nursing:.............................................................................................5
Importance of body language in nursing:........................................................................................7
References:....................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction:
Effective communication is considered to be important in maintenance of patient safety
and provide high quality care to patient enhancing patient satisfaction. Researchers are of the
opinion that when nurses are able to establish effective therapeutic communication with the
patients and their family members, it results in development of therapeutic interpersonal
relationship along with the decrease in anxiety of the patient and enhancement of the patient
compliance with the nursing treatment and the care plan designed for the patients. It also results
in optimistic experience for all individuals involved in the procedure (King et al., 2016).
Moreover, effective communication helps patients to develop trust on their professionals and
thereby revealing information that are intricately associated with the condition of the patient. All
these ensure that all information are known by the nurses that in turn help them to develop care
priorities and plan care interventions for the patient which brings the best health outcomes for the
patients (Jahromi et al., 2016). Therefore, it is extremely important for the healthcare
professionals to develop important communication skills that are very important for the
professionals to develop therapeutic relationship. This assignment will show how three important
skills like proper listening, questioning and body language influence nursing practice.
Importance of active listening in nursing:
Active listening is considered to be a responsible nursing practice which ensures safety of
the patient and proper decision making by the nurses. This skill of communication requires
concentration of attention as well as mobilization of all the senses for correct perception of all
the non-verbal as well as the verbal messages that is emitted by the student. With the help of
effective listening, nurses are able to assess the situations as well as the problems of the students
and thereby enhance the self-esteem of the patient integrating both the nursing diagnosis and

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different process of care in the various levels. Besides, active listening also contributes to the
clarification as well as better understanding of the bigger picture like the social determinants on
health affecting the patient or contributing to present acute disorder in the patients and many
others (Stojan, Clay & Lypson, 2016). Researchers have conducted studies where it has been
proved that history taking may sometime only consider of immediate complaint and may
overlook other contributing factors important for nursing practice that may result in low quality
service or unsafe practice. Therefore active listening skills helps the nurses to jot down important
contributing factors of the disorder, different issues and concerns faced by the patient during,
before and after the treatment, queries regarding the treatment and other which thereby ensure
patient satisfaction (Altabef et al., 2017). It helps in building trust between the nurse and the
patient where the patient feels that the nurse is carefully listening to her with genuine interest and
is empathetic towards her respecting her dignity. Some of the benefits of effective listening are
that it avoids misunderstandings among the stakeholders and help people to open up more and
say more when the listener is showing patience. It also helps to avoid conflicts where patients
feel they are paid importance and are not dismissed by the health professionals.

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From the above example, it becomes quite clear that the healthcare professional who is
attending the old woman was impatient in her listening skills. She was getting agitated as the old
lay was taking time to speak which was taking a lot of time of the nurse in the busy shift. In
every of the statements of the old lady, the nurse cut her short completing the statement by
herself or assuming herself of the statements the old lady wanted to say. Repeated cutting of the
sentences made the patient upset where she felt depressed and unhappy about her condition. She
felt that the nurse treated her this way because she was old and could not speak properly. This
made the nurse miss many of the information for which negative outcomes like medication error,
repeated drug administration, wring diet and others took place which affected her health and

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made her stay for longer days in hospitals. Researchers have stated that impatient listening skill
may lead to poor treatment of the patient due to wring medication, repeated drug administration,
missing out of cultural inhibitions and preferences, important concerns and issues faced by the
patient and many others. These lead to poor longer stays at hospital, increased suffering of
patient and many others.
Importance of questioning in nursing:
Questioning is one of the most important attribute for effective communication as this
attribute helps individuals in a number of ways. Primarily, it helps nursing professionals to
gather information about the patient. This information would help the professional to learn about
the patient and solve different types of problems (Bhana, 2014). This also helps in decision-
making procedure of the nurses that help to understand the patient’s conditions, care priorities,
needs and requirements of the patients more effectively. Researchers are of the opinion that
proper questioning helps nursing professionals in a number of ways. It helps to obtain
information about the patient for taking their history and other information about present
condition of the patient. It also helps to exhibit interest in the patient where the patient can feel
the genuine behavior of the nursing professionals (Joseph, Rhodes & Watson, 2016). It also
helps the nursing professionals to understand whether the patient has understood the different
points that had been said to her or the health education that has been provided to the patients. It
also helps the nurses to know more than the patient has revealed helping the patient to realize
any significant point that she has missed in the discussion (Edrees et al., 2017). Researchers are
of the opinion that questioning is an effective tool in encouraging patients is engaging in
effective communication and thereby developing a trustworthy relationship with the patients and
the family members. In many cases, it is seen that patients remain anxious about their health

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condition that makes them nervous and pressurized. In such condition, they cannot properly
detail their concerns, issues symptoms and others and therefore in such condition, effective
questioning is of high importance. In other condition, many patients also arrive who are highly
depressed and does not want to open up their issues to the healthcare professionals. Many of the
patients also remain concerned about their cultural traditions and thereby tend to not comply with
the healthcare professionals (Selby et al., 2016). In such situations, effective questioning may
result development of better knowledge bout the patient which helps in better decision making a
developing proper care plans for the patients. Professionals can ask both open-ended questions
and close-ended questions. These would depend solely on the situations and requirements of the
situations accordingly.
From the above situation, it can be well understood that the procedure of questioning
selected by the professional is inappropriate. The patient was already depressed and was not
willing to be treated by any professional. In such situation, close-ended questions do not suffice

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the objective of the nurse in gaining information about the patient. Patient was obese and
repeated workplace bullying had made him depressed where he did not want to open up to
anyone. In such situation, close needed question could not help nurse to know important points
to develop care plans and intervention priorities. Researchers are of the opinion that effective
questioning skills are highly important for nurse to overcome such stressful situations. Nurses
should learn to conduct critical thinking of the situations in which patients admit in the
healthcare centers and thereby question accordingly to fulfill their needs (Selby et al., 2016). The
ways of questioning in case of history taking, gathering information about the patient life
condition, ensuring comfort in the healthcare stay, ensuring effective health literacy and others
all differ and thereby nurses should prepare themselves accordingly.
Importance of body language in nursing:
Body language is one of the most important non-verbal communication skills that have
huge importance in the field of nursing and healthcare. Researchers are of the opinion that body
language has the ability to reveal a lot about the interest as well the engagement of the
professionals in the communication procedure with the patients. There are many studies where
experienced nurses have revealed that even if healthcare professors have the right things to say,
the information may get lot if the professionals do not display a proper body language to the
patient and family members (William, Kemper & Hummert, 2016). Improper body language
may send improper signals to the patient for which the patient may get upset or may feel
disrespected in the healthcare environment. They may also feel unsure about the interventions of
the professionals due to fear, anxiety and concerns. These may make them non-compliant with
the treatment provided by the professionals for which the health of the patients may be affected.
Therefore, it is very much important for nursing professionals to develop a body language which

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is not only confidant but also respectful of the patient irrespective of their knowledge, culture
and background (Bramhall, 2014). Body posture is one of the most important components of
body language that should show that the professional is relaxed, patient and have open stance
without the need to rush to any other activity (Betancourt et al., 2016). This makes the patients
feel that they are genuine in their expression that help in better results for two-way
communication. Eye contact as well as proper facial expressions are two other important
components that the nursing professionals should be very careful. Examples like rolling the eyes,
stiffening a yawn and similar others provide negative signals to patients (Foronda, McWilliams
& Mcarthur, 2016). Touch also plays an important role as researchers say that patients can
understand the emotions attached with the ways professionals touch them during caring which
tend to forward much information about the professionals. The four aspects need to be developed
by a professional in ways by which patients not only trust them but also develop a therapeutic
relationship with them that in turn increases compliance and adherence to treatment.

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From the above example, it becomes quite clear that improper eye contact and
continuously being distracted by the mobile phone made the patient feel that the professional was
distracted and was not dedicated in her care. This made her demoralized and disrespected. She
became anxious about the quality of care she would be receiving which made him complain to
her family member to change the professional with some other “better person”
Conclusion:
From the above discussion, it becomes quite clear that effective communication skills
between patients and professionals have positive health outcomes. It increases patient
satisfaction and patient safety and reduces longer stays at hospital, patient suffering, avoidable
hospital death and many others. Effective listening skills, questioning skills and body language

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have huge contributions to develop therapeutic relation with patients. All these attributes when
mastered by professionals, they can be sure to provide better quality care to patients gifting them
high quality lives.

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References:
Altabef, D., Meier, S., Reynolds, A., Delucia, J., & Friedling, L. (2017). Therapist response to a
distressed client: Differences in active listening and changes in negative
affect. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 17(3), 234-239.
Betancourt, J. R., Green, A. R., Carrillo, J. E., & Owusu Ananeh-Firempong, I. I. (2016).
Defining cultural competence: a practical framework for addressing racial/ethnic
disparities in health and health care. Public health reports.
Bhana, V. M. (2014). Interpersonal skills development in Generation Y student nurses: A
literature review. Nurse education today, 34(12), 1430-1434.
Bramhall, E. (2014). Effective communication skills in nursing practice. Nursing Standard
(2014+), 29(14), 53.
Edrees, H. H., Ismail, M. N. M., Kelly, B., Goeschel, C. A., Berenholtz, S. M., Pronovost, P.
J., ... & Weaver, S. J. (2017). Examining influences on speaking up among critical care
healthcare providers in the United Arab Emirates. International Journal for Quality in
Health Care, 29(7), 948-960.
Foronda, C., MacWilliams, B., & McArthur, E. (2016). Interprofessional communication in
healthcare: An integrative review. Nurse education in practice, 19, 36-40.
Jahromi, V. K., Tabatabaee, S. S., Abdar, Z. E., & Rajabi, M. (2016). Active listening: The key
of successful communication in hospital managers. Electronic physician, 8(3), 2123.
Joseph, M. L., Rhodes, A., & Watson, C. A. (2016). Preparing nurse leaders to innovate: Iowa's
innovation seminar. Journal of Nursing Education, 55(2), 113-117.

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King, G., Shepherd, T. A., Servais, M., Willoughby, C., Bolack, L., Strachan, D., ... & Savage,
D. 2016). Developing authentic clinical simulations for effective listening and
communication in pediatric rehabilitation service delivery. Developmental
neurorehabilitation, 19(5), 284-294.
Selby, D., Seccaraccia, D., Huth, J., Kurrpa, K., & Fitch, M. (2016). A qualitative analysis of a
healthcare professional's understanding and approach to management of spiritual distress
in an acute care setting. Journal of palliative medicine, 19(11), 1197-1204.
Stojan, J. N., Clay, M. A., & Lypson, M. L. (2016). Assessing patient-centred care through direct
observation of clinical encounters.
Williams, K., Kemper, S., & Hummert, M. L. (2016). Enhancing communication with older
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