Interviewing Skills for Healthcare Professionals

This article discusses the importance of effective communication skills in developing therapeutic relationships with patients. It highlights the areas that need improvement in motivational interviewing and provides suggestions on how to develop them.

Running head: INTERVIEWING SKILLS
INTERVIEWING SKILLS
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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INTERVIEWING SKILLS
What:
During the time of clinical placement, I got the opportunity to interview a single mother
of three children who was suffering from poor eating habits. She mainly prefers take-away foods,
as she feels tired and cannot cook after completing her duties at the local market. Even she
provides the left out food as lunches for her children the next day at the school. The teacher had
complained about improper food habits which had embarrassed the client and she requires
support for overcoming the strenuous situation. My mentor analyzed and marked the interview
session that I conducted with her. Initially, I was quite confident, as I had attended the theory
sessions in the university. I knew the different procedures that I had to undertake to ensure
successful outcomes for the motivational interviewing sessions. However, I still had some fear in
me as it was my first sessions and I had no idea about my communication skills. However, the
patient was helpful and she coordinated with me in the interview sessions effectively. However,
the patient was quite upset and morose and she could not communicate effectively as she felt
emotionally drained. However, the outcome of the interview was positive, as I was successful in
making her identify the negative aspects associated with the improper eating habit of the patient.
The patient was also satisfied after communicating with me and promised me that he would work
according to my advice. My empathetic communication skills made her feel comfortable and she
gradually opened up as she felt that I could understand her pain and suffering. However, there
had been certain areas, which my mentor pointed out that, did not go well in the interview. He
advised me to go though his comment so that I can develop my skills of motivational
interviewing in the future.

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INTERVIEWING SKILLS
So what:
Effective communication is an important component that is required for the development
of therapeutic relationship with the patient. Therapeutic relationships help in establishing strong
bonds with the patient and help the patient to trust the healthcare professionals enabling him or
her to open up to the patient (Bramhall, 2014). This help in revealing of information that help the
professionals to design effective care plans or advise, educate and motivate the patient with best
quality care services. In order to ensure effective communication, both verbal and non-verbal
communication skills need to be harbored. One of the most important non-verbal communication
skill is the gesture and body language that the professionals harbor. When patients feel that the
body language of the professionals are showing concerns regarding the health of the patients, the
patients feel secured and comfortable (Weber & Farell, 2016). Moreover, empathy and
compassion portrayed by the professionals make the patients feel that they genuinely feel about
their suffering and want to relieve them of their pain. I had exhibited the correct gestures and
body language along with empathy and compassion. Therefore, I was able to develop effective
relationship with the patient. However, one of the most important aspects of effective
communication is eye contacts. Western mode of communication supports eye contact as this
makes the patients feel that they are provided respected. Researchers also feel that eye contact is
important as it indicates that the professional is focused and is paying attention to the patient
making him feel that the professional is actively listening to the patient (O’Hagan et al., 2014). I
did not maintain eye contact with the patient and this was negative aspect of the communication.
If I had maintained eye contact with the patient, I could have developed a better relationship with
the patient and would have able to gain trust of the patient successfully.

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INTERVIEWING SKILLS
Another area that also had scope of development is effective paraphrasing of the
statements of the patient during motivational interviewing. Researchers state that professionals
need to paraphrase the different statements provided by the patients in order to clarify with the
patients that their emotions are well understood and empathize with it (Yoo & Park, 2015). It
also helps the patients to point out the professional if certain important pints are missed out. I
could not paraphrase the statements properly and often missed out important details of the
patients. This might make patients feel that the professionals are careless and not genuinely
interested in care. Therefore, I needed to develop my paraphrasing skills.
An in-depth analysis also showed that I did not have active listening skills. I was often
impatient and jumped on in solving problems and providing strategies without giving scope to
the mother to come out with her own issues. Motivation interviewing advises professionals to
conduct interviews in ways by which patients themselves understand the importance of changes
and come out with their own ideas and strategies of health behavior chances rather than
professionals advising changes (MacLean et al., 2017). My inactive listening skills made me
impatient and instead of waiting for the patient to come out with her own motivation to change, I
tried to solve the issues from her side. This was not the correct approach and could affect the
outcomes in future.
Now what:
I need to join the communication workshops conducted by stalwart healthcare leaders to
develop my verbal and non-verbal communication skills. I need to work on my eye contact
component as well as active listening skills. The workshop would be conducted on weekends and
hence I would be able to attend the workshops properly. I also need to conduct more evidence-

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based practices in order to develop my skills for motivational interviewing and need to discuss
the issues with my mentor. His guidance would help me develop my skills for motivational
interviewing successfully.
References:
Bramhall, E. (2014). Effective communication skills in nursing practice. Nursing Standard
(2014+), 29(14), 53.
MacLean, S., Kelly, M., Geddes, F., & Della, P. (2017). Use of simulated patients to develop
communication skills in nursing education: an integrative review. Nurse education
today, 48, 90-98.
O'hagan, S., Manias, E., Elder, C., Pill, J., Woodward‐Kron, R., McNamara, T., ... & 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), 1344-1355.
Weber, K., & Farrell, T. (2016). Developing therapeutic communication skills: Integration of
standardized client simulation in an associate degree nursing program.

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INTERVIEWING SKILLS
Yoo, M. S., & Park, H. R. (2015). Effects of case‐based learning on communication skills,
problem‐solving ability, and learning motivation in nursing students. Nursing & health
sciences, 17(2), 166-172.