Importance of Effective Communication in Nursing Practices

Running Head: NURSING
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Nursing
3/2/2019

NURSING
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Introduction
The essay brings about the discussion on the nursing concepts and practices, which
includes the assessment of the health, illness, and health promotion for the individuals in the
society. To discuss about the nursing concepts and the role it plays within society, it is first
essential to understand the concepts and practices related to nursing or healthcare. Nursing
refers to the profession within the healthcare sector that undertakes the responsibility of
providing care to the individuals to help them maintain and recover the health and quality of
life. Therefore, the essay will describe the importance of effective or therapeutic
communication, essential to attain skills to ensure effective care and treatment to the patients.
In addition, the essay will enlist the impact of communication on the health of the patient
(MacLean et al., 2017). The thesis statement for this essay is “Nurses or health professionals
can attain positive health outcomes for the patients through effective communication within
healthcare” . Thus, the report will mention the concept of therapeutic communication and the
leading positive influence on the health of the individuals.
Communication in Nursing practices
Leading on to the discussion over the topic, the essay will describe meaning and
importance of communication in the nursing practices. The aspect of communication in
healthcare is considered important tool for the health professionals and nurses to ensure
health services and improving the patient satisfaction. Moreover, communication in the
healthcare has a personal effect on the patients and other clients, depending on the manner the
communication process carried amongst them. In fact, to state about the process of
communication, it is not only a skill, and neither it in uni-directional rather it is determined as
the interaction between the sender and receiver of the information or important messages
during the process i.e. from both nurse/health professional and patient (Foronda,
MacWilliams & McArthur, 2016).
A nurse in a healthcare setting requires effective skills of communication to develop a healthy
relationship which include skills, flexibility, enhance listening ability, do not make
assumptions, understanding cultural differences, strengthen writing skills, and becoming
assertive or positive towards bringing change to the health condition of the patient.

NURSING
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According to some researchers, it has been analysed that the overall content of the
work and action of the nurses in the society and health system is largely the outcome of the
effectiveness of communication between nurses and external environment. This is further
associated to the process of therapeutic communication through which nurses consciously
influences the patients and helps them understand treatment through verbal and non-verbal
communication (Kurtz, Draper & Silverman, 2016).
Communication is one of the basic nursing competencies as the profession of nursing
is complex therefore; nurses need to adopt effective communication skills and attributes to
attain positive health outcomes. Besides, the process of communication is imperative for
attaining optimal patient care and preventing errors, within healthcare settings in
consideration to the treatment. Hence, from the above discussion it is clear that effective
communication is the core concept or aspect as the nursing roles, for the attainment of
successful outcome of individualized care of the patient (Gluyas, 2015).
Patient care through effective communication
Effective communication is a core skill that nurses need to provide care to the patient
and the quality of communication in the interactions amongst the patient and nurses leads to
an influence on the health of patient. Therefore, for a nurse, the ability to communicate is an
important skill and vital to perform best out of their job roles. Development of
communication skills by nurses in healthcare supported through practising interacting with
people or patient with varying cultural, educational, and social backgrounds, to attain the
level of efficiency (Bramhall, 2014).
Rosenberg and Gallo-Silver (2011) were of the view that a nurse working in a
healthcare, at any level such as primary, secondary or tertiary needs to apply competencies in
the area of pedagogy. Nowadays, hospitals or healthcare focused on the enhanced care of
their patients; however, it is more important to establish a direct contact between the nurse
and patients. It is necessary because of the fact it helps in attaining personal contact and
feedback from their service delivery or treatment methods used within health setting.
A study revealed that absence of communication or poor communication led to
negative health outcomes. This consists of the negative results such as discontinuity of care,
compromising patient health and safety, patient dissatisfaction and inefficient use of valuable
resources. Therefore, analysing the above section communication has been the driving force