Therapeutic Communication and Interprofessional Collaboration in Patient Centered Care

Running head: Professional studies
Professional studies
Name of the Student
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Author’s note

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Professional studies
Introduction
Therapeutic communication skills and inter-professional collaboration practice are
essential requirements for providing safe nursing care and promoting Patient Centered Care. The
process of therapeutic communication can be defined as a process in which the nurse influences
a client or assist the client to have a better understanding through the verbal and the non-verbal
communication (Hashim, 2017). Patient centered care can be defined as recognizing the patient
to be the source of control and full partner in the provision of a compassionate and coordinated
care based on the respect for the patient’s preferences. Therapeutic communication is one of the
core elements of providing a patient centered safe and equal care (Hashim, 2017).
This paper will discuss the core therapeutic skills required to achieve Patient Centered
Care, the different barriers to effective communication, the role of the interdiscipinary team to
deliver a safe and advanced care and effective means of increasing communication between the
members of the health care team.
Core therapeutic communication skills required to achieve Patient Centered Care
The communication skills required for a patient centered care included elicitation of the
agenda of the patient with open ended question, not interrupting the patient and involve in a
focused active listening. Understanding the viewpoint of the patient regarding a disease and
conveying compassion and care are some of the key features of a patient centered
communication (Webster, 2013). Understanding the feelings and the grievances of the patient
entails exploration of the patient’s ideas, beliefs, feelings, experiences and concerns regarding
the impact of the clinical condition and as well as what the patient is actually expecting from the
physician. Empathy towards the patient can be expressed by naming the feelings, respect and
assistance and communicating and understanding and exploring the experience of the patient and
their emotions.
Webster, (2013) has identified “patient centered care” as one of the core features of a
high quality care , which is only possible if there is a good therapeutic communication between
the patient and the clinician. A patient centered care builds on consultations and decisions
involving shared decision making. Discussion and shared decision making can only be facilitated

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Professional studies
is effective communication takes place. It is therapeutic communication and the shared decision
making that empowers a patient by inviting them to consider the different treatment options.
A patient centered communication should include both verbal and the non-verbal
methods. The verbal methods should include continuers while talking to the patient, for
examples phrases like “ I hear you” , “go on”, legitimating- for example Phrases like-“ “That
makes sense”, Open-ended questions , understanding, exploring , rephrasing and rechecking the
understanding of the patient. The non-verbal communication modes would include- Judicial eye
contact, identifying the facial expressions like grinning, biting of lips, concerned frowning, and
attentiveness.
Barriers to effective communication in nursing practice
The initial barrier to a client centered communication is, lack of time. The health care
professionals might feel that they do not have enough time to explain, listen and discuss with the
client. Again some times, the patients are not able to put forward their grievances before they are
being intervened by the healthcare provider. According to the studies, patients take hardly 2-3
minutes to share their entire story when they are encountered with open-ended questions.
The second barriers to patient centered communication are to negotiate the evidence
based treatment regimen with the patients. In most of the cases, the treatments are more disease
oriented with reference to the laboratory reports, the blood pressure, all that mark the disease
outcomes. Again the patient might not understand the medical terms of the reports. Another
barrier to patient centered communication is the language barrier. Linguistic barriers are quite
common while dealing with the cross cultural patients.
Again, the attitude of the health care provider can be an important barrier to an effective
communication that is patient centered. Traditionally, the chemists have been regarded as the
drug experts and who have been trained about the pharmacotherapeutic properties for meeting
the medication related needs of the patient (Naughton, 2018). Scientific knowledge of the drug
might be important, but approach an approach that is patient centered, requires knowledge of the
patient’s outlooks, values, and philosophies towards the health. A pharmacist can only
understand the suitability of the indication, effectiveness and safety of the patient by
incorporating a holistic understanding of the patient condition. A pharmacist should be able to