Therapeutic Communication Errors in Nursing Practice

This essay discusses the concept of therapeutic communication errors in nursing practice and strategies to reduce them. It focuses on errors related to lack of patient information, crossing professional boundaries, lack of attentiveness, and violation of professional boundaries. The essay emphasizes the importance of effective communication in building a healthy therapeutic relationship.

Running head: HUMAN LIFE COURSE AND DEVELOPMENT
HUMAN LIFE COURSE AND DEVELOPMENT
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Introduction:
The essay focuses on the concept of therapeutic communication that the error that
occurred between the nurse and the patient relating to therapeutic communication and
professional boundaries. Therapeutic communication is an important constituent of nursing
where face-to-face method of interaction takes place that primarily focus to provide adequate
support to the patient involving emotional and physical well-being (Riley 2015). Nurses
utilize the method of therapeutic communication in order to promote high quality of care to
the patient. The essay will focus on the error performed by the nurse while conducting
therapeutic communication. The significance of each error is explained in the essay and
strategies is also discussed to reduce the therapeutic communication error.
Error 1:
In order to establish a good therapeutic communication it is important that the nurse
develops a good rapport and gain all relevant knowledge regarding the patient that will allow
the patient to feel comfortable with the nurse (Arnold and Boggs 2019). In the provided video
it was seen the nurse had zero idea regarding the information of the patient. The nurse was
not even aware of the patient’s name and called her Mandy that was corrected by the patient
saying that her name is Sandy and not Mandy. This careless attitude of the nurse was
considered as the first error that in a way created a negative impression on the patient as
evident from her facial expression that could possibly influence her future treatment
procedure (Brownie, Scott and Rossiter 2016).
The strategy to reduce the communication error in nursing practice would be to
educate the nurse to collect all relevant information about the patient that would help the
patient to be comfortable with the nurse and the treatment would be smooth and effective.
Relevant information does not include only medical information but also include her personal

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detail like name, age, cultural background and sex of the patient (Dabkowski 2016). Hence, it
will allow the patient to skip any chances of therapeutic communication error and treat the
patient effectively.
Error 2:
In healthcare maintaining a healthy professional boundary is important that will allow
the nurse to maintain the dignity and privacy of the patient and treat the patient effectively.
Hence, professional boundary is denoted as limit that maintains the patient-nurse relationship
where the nurse is not permitted to discuss anything about their personal life or ask the
patient about their personal life that does not concern the nurse or useful in treating the
patient (Corrao 2016). In the video it was seen that the nurse crossed her professional
boundary and was discussing about her personal life including her boyfriends that was not
required and even the patient was not interested in listening to her personal life. This was
considered as the second professional boundary error that created a negative impression on
the patient.
The strategy to reduce the professional boundary error in nursing practice would be to
educate the nurse to not disclose any personal information that is not related with the
treatment procedure of the patient and maintain the dignity y of the patient while treating
(Joyce 2016). The nurses should only be allowed to disclose their name and their speciality.
Error 3:
Establishing a healthy therapeutic communication requires the nurse to effectively
communicate the advantage and significance of any diagnosis procedure or test procedure
performed to the patient so that the patient gain some information regarding the treatment and
can incorporate their decision or ideas in the treatment process (Grant and Goodman 2018).
The nurses are majorly responsible to produce awareness among the patient’s medication,

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treatment and test procedure. In the video it was seen that the nurse was performing blood
pressure test for the patient and after assessment of blood pressure she conveyed that there no
proper significance of this procedure and even the nurse was not very attentive while
performing the test. Hence this lack of attentiveness was considered as the third therapeutic
communication error where the nurse wrongly communicated the patient regarding the test
procedure.
The strategy to reduce the therapeutic communication error in nursing practice, the
nurses should be educated to convey all the relevant information to the patient so that the
patient has a general idea regarding their treatment process and they can individually involve
in the decision-making process (Trifkovic et al. 2017). The nurses should also learn to pay
attention to the test they are performing because each test is crucial to determine the health
condition of the patient.
Error 4:
Violation of professional boundary is considered as the major error in maintaining the
therapeutic relationship with the patient. Professional boundary is denoted as the limit that is
not supposed to be crossed by the nurse and they should a healthy relationship with the
patient (Lyons and Bliss 2018). In the video it was seen that the nurse was getting involved in
the patient’s personal life without seeking the patient’s permission and was discussing about
her past relationships that was majorly violating the standard of professional boundary. The
patient was not at all feeling comfortable and was hesitated and embarrassed by the situation
when the nurse was talking about her past relationship. This resulted in a negative impact on
the patient as it is very crucial that the patient should feel comfortable (Liberati 2017). Hence,
this resulted in fourth major therapeutic error that created a barrier between the patient and
the nurse.

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The strategy to reduce the therapeutic communication error in nursing practice would
be to educate the nurse to maintain their boundary and not discuss anything with the patient
without seeking their permission and that is not included as a part of their treatment (Donati
2016). The nurses should be aware of their limit and should maintain a healthy therapeutic
relationship that will make the patient feel comfortable and satisfied.
Conclusion:
It can be concluded from the essay that different therapeutic errors and professional
boundary error results in hampering the treatment of the patient and does not allow the patent
to build a healthy therapeutic relationship. The essay gave a detail insight regarding the
concept of communication barrier and the effect that result from the barrier. Different
strategies were also incorporated to mitigate the barriers and permit the nurse to successfully
build a healthy therapeutic relationship.

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References
Arnold, E.C. and Boggs, K.U., 2019. Interpersonal Relationships E-Book: Professional
Communication Skills for Nurses. Saunders.
Brownie, S., Scott, R. and Rossiter, R., 2016. Therapeutic communication and relationships
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Corrao, J.J., 2016. Teaching Professionalism in Nursing: A Quantitative Survey of Beginning
Student Nurse Perceptions of Professional Values Interpreted Within a Leadership Context.
Dabkowski, M.A., 2016. The ABCDEs of nursing: Essentials for new nurses to know.
Nursing2018, 46(2), pp.51-53.
Donati, D., 2016. Patient Management: A Nursing Perspective. In Organization and
Management of IVF Units (pp. 103-113). Springer, Cham.
Grant, A. and Goodman, B., 2018. Communication and Interpersonal Skills in Nursing.
Learning Matters.
Joyce, S., 2016. Designing between disciplines. Contour Journal, 1(1).
Liberati, E.G., 2017. Separating, replacing, intersecting: The influence of context on the
construction of the medical-nursing boundary. Social Science & Medicine, 172, pp.135-143.
Lyons, J. and Bliss, S., 2018. Nursing as a profession. The Road to Nursing, p.183.
Riley, J.B., 2015. Communication in nursing. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Trifkovič, K.Č., Lorber, M., Denny, M., Denieffe, S. and Gönc, V., 2017. Attitudes of
nursing students towards learning communication skills. In Teaching and Learning in
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