Effective Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication Strategies for Mr. Burnum

This essay discusses the most effective verbal and non-verbal communication strategies for Mr. Burnum to ensure effective care and transition into Aged Care Facility (ACF). It also explores the use of grief and loss communication framework in framing the forthcoming transition.

Running head: MR. BURNUM 1
Mr. Burnum
Name
Institutional Affiliation

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MR. BURNUM
Introduction
The audience for this essay is the nurse. This is a nurse who wants to know the most
effective verbal and non-verbal written communication strategies to adopt to make sure the
readers fathom the present patient care status and the future transition care of patient into Aged
Care Facility (ACF). The nurse further wants to explain and justify how he would utilize loss and
grief communication framework for framing upcoming transition of the grieving patient into
ACF included in the nursing progress notes.
Effective Verbal and Non-Verbal Written Communication Strategies
Communication remains people, interactive process which sends certain connotation,
message, emotions, and information alongside beliefs from a person to the next or to a cluster of
individuals. Interrelationships alongside connected among and between the people take place as
a result of communication occurrence. Various forms of communication exists. It can take place
via spoken words, body-language, and written word alongside gestures that are written, oral and
non-verbal communications. It remains imperative that constituents of every kind of
communication are efficient and effective for communication to take place and be effective
(Weber & Farrell, 2016).
In the case of Mr. Burnum Perkins, the nurse has adopted therapeutic communication
strategies to give client support. She has adopted such techniques as, silence, focusing, active-
listening utilizing open-ended queries, exploring, reflecting, clarification, and offering self
among other therapeutic communication strategies.
Attentive and Active Listening strategy was adopted by the nurse as it is an indispensable
portion of communication. It is beyond hearing alongside attentive listening goes past merely

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being silent while listening. Active-attentive listening is never a passive task since it encompass
the nurse’s hearing, processing alongside purposefully understanding the words of Mr. Burnum
Perkins’ words alongside processing such words in setting of his scenario alongside non-verbal
communication which client sends as he orally express certain message to the nurse (Nielsen et
al., 2017).
Silence to listening was also adopted by the nurse as a purposeful active course instead of
a passive procedure. Both the client alongside the nurse took advantage of transitory pauses of
silence thinking and reflecting on comprehensive connotation of message and anticipate as well
as reflecting on how to react to a message with desired feedback. It was helpful as the nurse
wanted to give Mr. Burnum Perkins enough period to openly alongside completely deliberate
their respective opinions, beliefs, feelings, nonetheless, lasting silence might get construed by
Mr. Burnum Perkins as a nurse’s lack of interest so silence to stay therapeutic, have to be
suitable period thus it does not negatively influence the patient and therapeutic patient-nurse
bond (Fan & Taylor, 2016).
The nurse used effective non-verbal communication. For example, eye contact, suitable
facial expression, touch, handshakes, hugs which communicated the care, concern, compassion
which is essential to nurse profession. The nurse used a sincere handshake with his her eye
contact, good listening skills as well as able to communicate details without sounding extremely
businesslike which proved critical during Mr. Burnum Perkins crisis. Her use of visual (eye
contact, posture, body language) alongside vocal (speech rate and voice tone) effectively
supported and softened the grim details. Her effective body positioning and posture proved
successful (Meichsner, Schinköthe & Wilz, 2016).
Using Grief and Loss Communication Framework

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This section explains and justifies how I would utilize the loss and grief framework of
communication to frame forthcoming transition care for Mr. Burnum Perkins into the Aged Care
Facility (ACF).
Grieving remains a normal reaction to loss. National North America Nursing Diagnosis
defines grieving as a normal, complex process which involve emotional, spiritual, physical,
intellectual, and social responses alongside behaviors via which families, communities,
individuals integrate a loss into their everyday lives.
Every loss influence a client and it can take place due to a intrapersonal self-loss and
bodily image loss alongside extra-personal losses such as loss of a pet, loved one’s death
including a spouse or child personal friendship loss due to a spat, and the loss of a person’s life
saving. Grief and grieving process feature despair, suffering, pain, sleep impairment, distress,
detachment, anger, guilt alongside personal growth.
Theories and conceptual frameworks offer nurses and health care practitioners an insight
into loss, grief, grieving process and ways through which nurse can meet clients’ needs who are
influenced by normal grief alongside unresolved complex grief.
Coping alongside coping mechanisms to grief can differ significantly among people. As a
nurse, I am aware that such a coping is influenced by several variables and forces like a person’s
cultural, religious, and spiritual background, the client’s previous experiences with losses, level
of growth and development of an individual that influence a person’s death and loss perception
like a lack of understanding regarding death finality, a person’s social support level alongside
interpersonal relationships, ethnicity, socioeconomic, perception of the client severity and
gravity of loss.

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Grief and loss communication framework is effective in helping Mr. Burnum Perkins
transition effectively into the Aged Care Facility (ACF). This is because it will help
understanding the language of grief and loss which assist nurse understand the needs of the client
and address them effectively. This framework is justifiable since it helps the nurse to understand
the modes of expression of the patient. A nurse must understand the expression of the grieving
person to devise ways of helping him cope with the loss and grief.
Thus, this framework will boost the nurse’s awareness of verbal responses (oral or
written), nonverbal responses (reflective or silent); physical responses (expressions or somatic);
as well as physical activities (objects or rituals) used by Mr. Burnum to help him cope in the
ACF in the future. The bereaved always express his grief through various spoken languages with
some having no direct translation. The nurses has to use this framework to understand Mr.
Burnum’s non-verbal, physical and verbal responses as well as physical activities to understand
how the patient expresses his grief and loss. Such an understanding is required to ensure that the
patient is helped to cope well (Basinger, Wehrman & McAninch, 2016).
Another justification for the use of grief and loss communication framework is that it
helps a nurse understand the types of language used by the bereaved. These language include
narrative or storytelling, metaphor or figurative, symbolism or representation and analysis or
concretization. Understanding the types of language will help Mr. Burnum transition well since
the nurse will get to understand issues or concerns of the bereaved and devise best ways to help
him cope (Arnold & Boggs, 2019).
Conclusion
This paper has shown the most effective non-verbal and verbal written communication
strategies a nurse would use to make sure that the readers understand the current care status and

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future transition care of Mr. Burnum. The discussion has also explained and justified how a
nurse would use grief and loss communication framework to frame Mr. Burnum’s future into
ACF.

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References
Arnold, E. C., & Boggs, K. U. (2019). Interpersonal Relationships E-Book: Professional
Communication Skills for Nurses. Saunders, 12(1), 12-45.
Basinger, E. D., Wehrman, E. C., & McAninch, K. G. (2016). Grief communication and privacy
rules: Examining the communication of individuals bereaved by the death of a family
member. Journal of Family Communication, 16(4), 285-302.
Fan, C. W., & Taylor, R. (2016). Quality of a Theory-Based Assessment to Measure Therapeutic
Communication Styles During Rehabilitation. American Journal of Occupational
Therapy, 70(4_Supplement_1), 7011500070p1-7011500070p1.
Meichsner, F., Schinköthe, D., & Wilz, G. (2016). Managing loss and change: grief interventions
for dementia caregivers in a CBT-based trial. American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease &
Other Dementias®, 31(3), 231-240.
Nielsen, M. K., Neergaard, M. A., Jensen, A. B., Vedsted, P., Bro, F., & Guldin, M. B. (2017).
Predictors of complicated grief and depression in bereaved caregivers: a nationwide
prospective cohort study. Journal of pain and symptom management, 53(3), 540-550.
Weber, K., & Farrell, T. (2016). Developing therapeutic communication skills: Integration of
standardized client simulation in an associate degree nursing program, 11(2), 2-111.