Professional Communication in Patient Safety: A Case Study Analysis

This report examines the critical role of professional communication in patient safety, using a case study involving a patient named Eileen Murphy. The report emphasizes the importance of effective communication skills, active listening, and empathy in building therapeutic relationships, which are essential for understanding and addressing patients' concerns, reducing distress, and ensuring positive outcomes. It highlights the integration of communication with patient-centered care, care plan development, and the significance of reflective practice for professional development. The report concludes that nurses must develop effective communication skills and engage in reflective practice to deliver improved patient care and maintain safety, considering the patient's psychological, cultural, and emotional factors.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION IN PATIENT SAFETY
PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION IN PATIENT SAFETY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION IN PATIENT SAFETY
Introduction
Eileen Murphy is the patient in the scenario of 72 years age and found to be alone as her
husband died 5 years ago. However, she has a pet dog and she has been admitted to the
emergency department for her dehydration and the vomiting diarrhoea issue. Under the present
nurse the patient has been stated that she was very much distressed about her pet which was
alone in the house. It has been seen that other than her diarrhoea issue the patient’s vitals were
normal despite of that she has fallen at the time of going to the toilet. Hence, it has been seen that
the patient was affected with the psychological trauma. In this context, it can be stated that the
nurse needed to understand patient’s issue and converse with her for the betterment of the
condition. Thus, in the following section the importance of the professional communication in
patient safety would be discussed with details.
Discussion
Patient Safety and communication
Patient safety is the utmost priority of a nurse and for that the nurse which is the practice
implementation for the error free care delivery and prevention of any adverse effect on the
patient. In this context, it can also be found that the patient safety is not only related to the
physical safety but also to the factors of the psychological, cultural and emotional factors of the
patient as well (Conroy et al., 2017). Hence, the nurse should be able to understand the concerns
related to the patient and thus, the communication skills of the nurse play a critical role. It has
been found that the communication skills help the nurses to understand the patient and also
develop trust and rapport among them (Price, 2017). This can be stated that the communication
and the therapeutic relationship are the integrated aspects of the nursing care and it leads to the

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attainment of the patient safety as well. Hence, it has been found that the communication is one
of the most important aspects in the process of the care. The nursing care is integrated with many
different aspects including rapport or therapeutic relationship development with the patient along
with the care plan development. In this context, it can also be found that the care plan
development is a process in nursing care which including the partnership of the nurse, patient
and the family members to develop individual goal settings. Moreover, process of the care plan
development or the rapport development with the patient can be marked as the patient centred
care delivery process (Hall & Glew, 2017). Hence, it can also be stated that the nursing care is
dependent on different aspects and all the aspects are correlated. However, the communication
skills and the therapeutic relationship development with the patient are dependent on each other
which can deliver the positive care and ensure the patient safety as well (Levett-Jones, 2020).
Based on the above contexts it can also stated that the Eileen Murphy case should be
handled with proper communication and therapeutic relationship development as it can engage
the patient and let her forget the negative distress she was having about her pet dog. If the nurse
responsible for her care can develop therapeutic relationship with trust and rapport the patient
can understand and reduce the distress subsequently. Hence, it can be stated that the nurse should
implement active listening, verbal and non-verbal communication skills which can deliver
empathy to the patient (Isobel & Delgado, 2018). Thus, the positive trust build up would take
place. In this context, it can be stated that the effective communication skills of the nurse would
be effective in the process of reduction of the distress of the patient. Moreover, it can be stated
that the nurse should communicate with the patient about the concerns of the patient and based
on that conversation the nurse should develop the effective care plan. Hence, it can be stated that
the process of the care is solely dependent on the therapeutic relationship with the patient and

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that also depends on the effective communication skills of the nurse. It can also be stated that the
trust and the therapeutic relationship with Eileen Murphy can be developed through the
empathetic communication and also ensuring the patient about the safety of the pet dog. In this
context, it can also be stated that the process of the care should be developed with the proper
consideration of the patient’s mental situation ((Hall & Glew, 2017). Moreover, the context of
the therapeutic relation should be maintained with the patient for the positive outcome obtaining
regarding the patient’s health condition.
Reflection
Based on above discussion I can reflect that the importance of the communication cannot
be neglected in terms of the effective care delivery to the patient. I can also state that based on
the case discussion the nurses should be able to analyse and reflect on the factor of the care
delivery process. I have found that the reflection helps in the knowledge and experience
development in terms of the professional improvement. Hence, it can be found that the reflection
process is dependent on several aspects including analysis of the case, self awareness and the
critical thinking and self reflection (Kaba & Barnes, 2019). Based on all these aspects I can
develop the reflective practice which will help me in the professional development. I can found
that the self awareness about the communication skills and the implementation of this factor in
the professional practice regarding health care delivery would be important and also effective. In
this context, I can also effectively develop the idea of implementing the therapeutic relationship
development or the effective rapport development with the patient would be required for
delivering improved care to the patient. Hence, I can state that the reflective practice would have
been helpful in the identification of the flaws and the strengths of the care delivery process and
subsequently help me in the development of the future professional skills (Welp et al., 2018).

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Moreover, it can be sated that the effective communication, therapeutic relationship and also
reflective practice all are very much important in the positive care delivery to the patient.
Conclusion
Based on the above discussion it can be concluded that communication skills of the
nurses a play crucial role in the process of care delivery. It can be stated that the therapeutic
relationship and the process of the care delivery is very much integrated in terms of the nursing
care process. Moreover, the process of the rapport development and the patient safety
maintenance are also interdependent. Thus, it can be suggested that the nurses should reflect on
the care process and develop the effective communication skills for delivering the positive and
improved care to the patient considering the safety maintenance.

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References
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