Effective Communication in Nursing

This essay discusses the importance of effective communication in nursing practice and its impact on therapeutic nurse-patient relationship and patient safety. It explores the use of verbal and non-verbal communication skills, person-centered care, and effective documentation in promoting positive health outcomes. The case scenario of George Pham, a 73-year-old male with a stressful lifestyle and minor lifestyle changes, is used to illustrate the application of these communication strategies.

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

Effective communication is one of the crucial elements of effective, competent and safe
nursing practice. Good communication between nurse and patient is the foundation based on
which individualized nursing plan can be developed, patient’s satisfaction with care can be
maintained and safe and positive health outcome can be achieved. Communication skills of nurse
has an impact on their ability to develop therapeutic relationship with patient and ensuring that
patients are active participants in their care decision making and treatment (Arnold & Boggs,
2019). This essay aims to discuss the reason behind why effective communication promotes
therapeutic nurse-patient relationship and patient safety. The essay also uses the concept of
verbal and non-verbal communication skills, person centred care and effective documentations to
demonstrates how these three elements can be applied for the case scenario of George Pham, a
73 year old male with stressful lifestyle and minor changes in lifestyle.
Therapeutic nurse-patient relationship is one in which mutual respect exist, sensitivity
towards patients is maintained and nurse’s focus on meeting holistic care needs of patient. This
form of relations creates harmony and promotes healing process for ill patient. Verbal and non-
verbal communication skills is an important part of therapeutic nurse-patient communication
and display of this skill ensure that patient’s experience during care is enhanced and they
develop trust on nurse’s ability to promote their health and well-being (Hill, Hall & Glew, 2014).
Verbal communication methods like active interaction with patient, active listening skills,
rapport building process and non-verbal communication methods like display of appropriate
gestures like touch, facial expression and eye contact has an impact of nurse’s ability to maintain
professional relationship during interaction and gain the confidence of patient’s towards health
care system. Therapeutic relationship is based on mutual trust, respect and cooperative and
effective communication process is the factor that promotes developing such therapeutic

relationship with patient (Feo et al., 2017). The verbal communication skills can be applied in the
context of the care of George Pham by first making the patient comfortable using rapport
building skills like introducing oneself, stating the purpose of interaction with patient and
mirroring patient’s behaviour. This will ensure that appropriate connection is built with George
Pham so that he can reveal about all critical factors that influence his health. Verbal
communication skills of active listening and inquiring about barrier to healthy eating and
cessation of harmful behaviours like smoking and alcohol use can help nurse to interpret key
concerns and develop tailor made care plan for George (Hill, Hall & Glew, 2014). In addition,
use of non-verbal skills of nurse such as touching hands to show emotional support and facial
gesture of nod will give patient the opinion that his wishes and opinion is important. This will
help the nurse to collect appropriate data from patient and get maximum cooperation during the
management of his care.
Effective nurse-patient communication ensures that patient safety is maintained and
positive patient outcome is achieved. This occurs by the proper application of patient-centred
care principles during the communication process. Patient centred care involves providing
responsive and respectful care to patient by incorporating individual patient’s preferences, needs
and values during clinical decision making process (Hall & Glew, 2014). This ensures that
patient’s right to autonomy is never violated during care process and patient’s preferences related
to care process is maintained while developing care plan. Application of patient centred care
eliminates language and cultural gap in communication and reduces the likelihood of
misinterpretation of patient information. As a result, any adverse events occurring due to
communication gap or misinterpretation is eliminated and the goal of patient safety is maintained
(Edvardsson, Watt & Pearce, 2017). According to the Nursing and Midwifery Code of Conduct,

it is essential that nurses provide safe and person centred care by entering in partnership with the
person, promoting shared decision making and care delivery (Nursing and Midwifery Board of
Australia, 2018). The principle of patient centred care can be applied by nurse in the context of
George Pham by actively engaging him while making care plan. For example, while developing
strategies to promote healthy eating, the nurse can ask for preference of patient in relation to
food choices and food eating patterns based on cultural ground. The nurse can actively
communicate regarding food choices and barrier to healthy eating to develop appropriate food
chart. In addition, at each point of care, nurse can inform patient regarding the care plan and the
purpose and benefits of different strategies. This will ensure that patient’s autonomy is
maintained, they are well-informed about care and they become an active participant in their
health related decisions.
Good nurse-patient communication also facilitates recording critical information about
patient and maintaining appropriate documentation process to promote continuity of care and
delegate necessary actions to other involved multi-professional team. Effective documentation is
a facet of risk management and it plays a role in promoting safety of patient (Hill, Hall & Glew,
2014). Documentation process can work to promote health of Mr. George Pham too. This can be
said because recording George’s details related to food eating habits and barrier to healthy
lifestyle can help to address all unique needs of patient. For example, his smoking habit and
alcohol drinking habit can be recorded to develop appropriate cessation plans. In addition, the
information related to preference of fried noodles and rice can be used to educate patient about
harmful effect of consuming fried items and ways to include healthy food without extra efforts.
The contribution of effective documentation process in the care plan is that it enhances nurse’s
capability to develop individualized patient care plan.

From the discussion regarding the benefits of nurse-patient communication on patient
safety and therapeutic patient relationship, it can be concluded that good communication skills of
nurse facilitates improving care quality and patient safety outcome. The application of verbal and
non-verbal communication skill, patient centred care and good documentation process ensure
that transparent communication takes place and effective decision making takes place by
considering patient’s emotional, physical, spiritual and physical care needs. This concept has
been applied in the case scenario of George Pham to understand how effective communication
between nurse-patient improves quality of care and patient’s satisfaction with the care process.

References:
Arnold, E. C., & Boggs, K. U. (2019). Interpersonal Relationships E-Book: Professional
Communication Skills for Nurses. Saunders.
Edvardsson, D., Watt, E., & Pearce, F. (2017). Patient experiences of caring and person‐
centredness are associated with perceived nursing care quality. Journal of advanced
nursing, 73(1), 217-227.
Feo, R., Rasmussen, P., Wiechula, R., Conroy, T., & Kitson, A. (2017). Developing effective
and caring nurse-patient relationships. Nursing Standard (2014+), 31(28), 54.
Hall, H., & Glew, P. (2014). Introduction to nursing, midwifery and person-centred care.
Fundamentals of nursing and midwifery : a person-centred approach to care. Pearson
Australia. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Hill, R., Hall, H., & Glew, P. (2014). Communication. Fundamentals of nursing and midwifery :
a person-centred approach to care. Pearson Australia. Retrieved from
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Hill, R., Hall, H., & Glew, P. (2014). The relationship between communication and patient
safety. Fundamentals of nursing and midwifery : a person-centred approach to care.
Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (2018). Code of Conduct for nurses. Retrieved from:
https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Statements/Professional-
standards.aspx