Strategies for Respectful Communication in Palliative Care

This essay examines the crucial aspects of professional communication in palliative care, specifically focusing on interactions with Aboriginal older adults and their families facing terminal illnesses. It emphasizes the significance of culturally sensitive communication, highlighting the nurse's pivotal role in providing respectful and effective care. The paper discusses the importance of understanding Aboriginal cultural practices, the need for open and transparent communication, and the value of family involvement in decision-making. It explores the challenges of cross-cultural care, the use of interpreters, and the impact of institutional barriers. The essay underscores the significance of non-verbal communication, active listening, and avoiding medical jargon. It emphasizes the need for nurses to build trust, provide emotional support, and adapt communication strategies to meet individual and family needs, ensuring that the right information is shared with the right people. Furthermore, the essay stresses the importance of holistic clinical assessments, recognizing spiritual and cultural needs, and supporting families throughout the end-of-life process. The conclusion reiterates the importance of proficiency in communication skills for nurses, considering the sensitive nature of palliative care and the need for culturally appropriate service delivery to achieve patient and family satisfaction.

Running Head: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
Professional Communication
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

Running Head: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
Topic- The strategies of respectful, effective communication with an Aboriginal older older adult
and the family diagnosed with a terminal illness. Focus on the role of a nurse in communicating
with the patient and the patient family.
The palliative care is defined as a family centered care which is provided to a person
having a progressive, active and advanced disease with no prospect of cure and the person is
about to pass on soon. The palliative care also identifies and then treats the symptoms such as
physical, spiritual, emotional and social due to the fact that is founded on the individual needs.
The palliative care can be diverse and the term ‘end of Life’ suggests the care that will be given
in the last few weeks of life when a patient is having life limiting illness is approaching passing
in a rapid manner (Len Kelly 2020). While providing the person centered care to the aboriginal
people, it is significant to ask the person regarding their preferences of people who would be
involved in the discussions regarding their health care. This is because they may have one
decision maker or spokesperson that has to be involved in all these questions and the decision-
making about the care of the patient. It should be documented clearly in the record of the patient
in such cases. In this paper, the communication strategies for communicating with aboriginal
older adults and their families in the palliative care will be discussed along with emphasizing on
the role of nurses in palliative communication.
The time involved in the end of a person's life is quite precious and required to be fully
respected with the safe and responsive attitude having included the culturally appropriate ways.
The people of aboriginal origin sometimes have a number of customary practices to be
conducted before, during and after the passing of a person (Pcc4u.org, 2020).. These practices
are considered to be sacred for them and may not be discussed outside of their own community
widely. The palliative care is designed for assisting the health workforce that is aimed at

Running Head: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
providing care for the aboriginal people, their families along with the communities. It is aimed at
supporting the policymakers and provides explanations both in terms of accessing the resources,
researching and projecting. While delivering the service to the aboriginal people, the strong
community connection and their involvement are extremely required.
The engagement of the community can be done through partnering with the local services
involving elders from the communities in the program design and development of materials and
the exploration of the community palliative care requirements. For the aboriginal people, it is
extremely important to die at home or receive the care at home because they have some rituals
and ceremonies to practice at the end of life which are special for them (Rietjens et al.,
2017).Therefore, while treating the aboriginal older adults under palliative care, the intercultural
space and the world should be fully respected so that they can make connections with the service
providers. There should be open communication from the physician you should respect the
choices of the patient and treat them with compassion and kindness (Sealy et al., 2019).The
patient should be asked about what they would like to eat because as per the original culture is
found that offering food brings comfort to the dying person and it is an act of compassion
emotional healing and spirituality instead of the restrictive diets.
The cross-cultural care during death is a challenging Service Delivery where the
communication should be clear and the strategies should meet the family and the cultural needs.
There should be transparent communication respect proper environment for providing effective
service to the patients. Most of the patients usually die in hospital and this is culturally
appropriate for urban and rural patient food stuff table for the aboriginal people who are from
distant communities the death of a person in hospital signifies far from family and home and
being in an unfamiliar cultural aspect (Haun et al.,2017).. It can we say that contrasting styles of

Running Head: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
communication can further complicate the palliative care. A study has found that communication
with the patients of aboriginal culture should be non verbal communication focusing on the
listening and accepting of the silence. Another study is focused on the pain management that can
signal the requirement of attending to the non verbal cues during assessing pain levels among the
Australian aboriginal patients. An interpreter can also be used for facilitating the cross culture
communication to act as the advocate and mediator between two sets of concepts and values
which can become a source of empowerment for the dying patients (Watson et al., 2019).The
family members should not be taken as the medical interpreter because which might not inform
the patients about the bad news and hide many thing said by the physician. Considerably the
culture and institutional barriers can affect negatively the aboriginal end of Life Care. It is
described that the fundamental conflict generates between dying in hospital and dying in the
house. The traditional value difference in terms of the family and the community implies taking
care of each other until death.
The policies on the other hand might pose barriers to the culture, the practices and the
processes of the community. There can be restrictions on the number of visitors at a time which
can disturb the values of the aboriginal tradition that suggests being surrounded with the whole
family throughout the stages of end of life. It is extremely significant to keep certain factors in
mind while communicating with aboriginal older adults and their families. While communicating
with the aboriginal older adults are there family, the right information should be shared with the
right people which is extremely significant. The caregiver should identify the nationhood of the
individual having checked with the individual along with their family regarding what is suitable
to talk about (Watson et al., 2019).. The culturally safe communication strategy should be
considered that are relevant to the individuals and their family such as family meetings,

Running Head: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
teleconferences and translators. They should also locate a proper amount of time while
facilitating meaningful discussions. The caregiver should start the interactions with having a
Yarn after allowing the conversation to proceed slowly to the end incorporating patient and
family location simultaneously. Further, it should be confirmed that every information has been
understood properly by the patient and the family members. Any type of medical jargon should
be avoided using while communicating with these people (Wittenberg et al., 2016). A holistic
and comprehensive clinical assessment should be completed and the caregiver should identify
and respond to the cultural and spiritual needs, the practices and ceremonies even after the death
of the patient. The families of the aboriginal people should be supported who have large number
of visitors. The movement of the individual should be considered near the entrance of the ward.
Communication has been considered to be a transfer of information between people and
communication for the nurse is significant in the current situation. It is an essential part of the
nursing practice having a special meaning. The nurses are good communicators because they are
supposed to obtain the trust of the patients for gaining information about the patients and their
families (Wittenberg et al., 2016). The communication is extremely conducive in terms of the
nursing assessment along with the care plan development and implementation. For achieving the
purpose of healing the patients, a successful communication can develop strong relationship
between the patients and nurses and the family of the patient also that can provide the treatment
to the psychological aspect too (Cronin & Finn, 2017). The nurses are found to be playing a
significant role in the patient communication and the clinical nurses make some interaction with
the patients of different levels every time. The communication between the patients and the
nurses in the rehabilitation of patient plays a significant role consisting of the verbal
communication and nonverbal communication in the process of mutual understanding combined

Running Head: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
together. In the course of their work, the nurses should make use of legible language along with
appropriate words for conveying their ideas and making people understand what they say so that
they can exchange the ideas and the feelings (Montgomery, Sawin & Hendricks-Ferguson,
2017).. The communication between the patients and the nurses should have a clear focus and
purpose on the subject which highlights the theme. Nurses should be good in terms of guiding
and controlling the environment of conversation enabling the patients eliminating the tension, the
emotional stability, enhancing the confidence of realizing the health condition. The language
should also be simple and easily understandable for the patient and the family. The language
usually used by the nurses is full of protection, comfort, explanation and some other features
(Montgomery, Sawin & Hendricks-Ferguson, 2017). In the process of communicating with the
patient the nurses also should make the language filled with emotion which depends on the
emotional control and regulation of the nurse. Regarding the non verbal communication can be
say that it has a huge role in enhancing the effects of the verbal communication. In nursing a
smile can create a comfortable atmosphere for the patients and make the patients feel homely
with relieved mindset. The non nonverbal expression is therefore extremely important which is
full of strong function of the verbal expression and is colorful (Marques Pereira de Melo Alves et
al., 2019). It also consists of the body languages which can strengthen the relationship through
movement, gesture and convey some information which are not conveyable by language. Also
the nurses in communicating nonverbally can enhance the trust of the patient and the faith of the
patient family also who are of different culture. It can work a lot in terms of reducing the anxiety
of the patient and their family.
On a concluding note, it can be said that communication between the nurse and the
patient is an art and the nurses not only need expertise for acquiring this art but also need a huge

Running Head: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
knowledge regarding humanities and social science along with strong communication skills. It
should be noted that the palliative care is a sensitive field of Healthcare where cross-cultural
conditions can make the situation quite challenging. The delivery of the service and
communication strategies should meet the family and the cultural needs. There should be
communication, respect, proper environment, transparency and suitable care giving. Hence, the
proficiency and the use of communication skill is essential in the nursing field for providing best
care to the patient and achieving the satisfaction of the family members in terms of aboriginal
care giving. It is extremely important for the health care providers to align with the cultural
leadership, communication strategies which are relevant to the individual and their family for
ensuring that right information is being shared with the right people. In this way the effective
communication with an aboriginal adult and his/her family can be conducted in the palliative
care.

Running Head: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
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Running Head: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
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