Significance of Therapeutic Communication Skills in IPC Practice

Running head: Nursing Assg 1
Nursing Assg.
by
Course:
Tutor:
University:
Department:
Date:

Nursing Assg 2
Introduction
The objective of nursing as a health care science is to attend to the
biopsychosocial and spiritual needs of people. Nursing practice requires
both scientific knowledge and relational and communication skills.
Therapeutic communication has been defined as the mechanism in which
the healthcare provider intentionally impacts a client or assist him or her
to a better comprehension through the use of verbal or non-verbal
communication. Therapeutic communication is important in fostering and
maintaining better associations and inter-professional collaboration (IPC)
practice, which is fundamental for nursing care (Jasmine, 2009). Despite
the significance of therapeutic communication skills in the provision of
healthcare services, there is a dearth of information emphasising on its
significance. The objective of this paper is to assess the significance of
therapeutic communication skills in IPC practice, and its role in offering
safe nursing care and fostering quality health care. The specific areas
addressed by this essay include the fundamental therapeutic
communication skills important in nursing practice, hindraces to effective
communication, the role of IPC practice in the provision of Patient-Centred
Care, and communication strategies to improve IPC and Patient-Centred
Care.
Question 1
The core therapeutic communication skills include Active Listening, asking
relevant questions and focusing. Active listening involves being attentive
to whatever the client is communicating verbally or non-verbally. Active
listening is not passive and therefore it entails the nurse hearing and
objectively processing the words of the client and responding according to
the client’s context. Sibiya (2018) observed that active listening is
commonly determined by non-verbal cues such as eye contact, the
distance between the nurse and patient, and body movements such as
nodding and inclining the body towards the speaker. The verbal indicators
of active listening include regular verbal feedbacks including encouraging

Nursing Assg 3
sounds, and the responses should also indicate comprehension of both the
facts and the feelings implied in the facts. Jagosh, Boudreau, Steinert,
MacDonald, and Ingram, (2011) examined the significance of listening by
a healthcare expert listening from the perspective of the patient. The
study found out that active listening was significant in three major ways
namely: listening was a way of promoting and empowering the physician-
patient relationship; listening was a crucial element during diagnosis and
in the collection of data, and listening was healing and therapeutic.
According to Bramhall (2014), active listening is an effective therapeutic
communication skill in nursing practice because it establishes and
sustains a healthy patient-nurse relationship, improves health outcomes
and patient satisfaction.
Asking relevant questions is another therapeutic communication skill in
nursing practice. Nursing practice is also about making the right decisions
within a short time and also based on the information gathered from the
client. Nurses should ask one question at a time and explore it fully before
moving to another subject. Sibiya (2018) recommends the use of open-
ended questions for managing the conversation between clients and
nurses and for introducing an important topic to the patient.
Focusing on a therapeutic communication skill that is used to ensure the
patient pays attention to the topic of discussion, which is a reflection of
the patient’s priorities. This also ensures that the clients do not waste
time talking about irrelevant things, and ensures that the little available
time is used for obtaining in-depth information from the client which is
essential for diagnosis (Sibiya, 2018).
Question 2
The common hindrances to effective communication in healthcare deliery
include lack of effective communication skills and in the speciality areas,
high workload, and cultural differences. Anoosheh, Zarkhah, Faghihzadeh,
and Vaismoradi (2009) indicated that most of the graduate nurses and
some practising healthcare providers do not have adequate knowledge in