Case Study: Communication Analysis for NUR1102 Assignment

This presentation offers a detailed analysis of a nursing case study, focusing on the communication processes between a nurse, a patient (Helena), and the patient's family. The analysis identifies both verbal and non-verbal communication strategies, skills, and approaches used by each participant, highlighting instances of effective and ineffective communication. The presentation incorporates a SOAP note (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan) to document the case and an SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) approach to provide a structured clinical handover. The case study reveals a misunderstanding due to the nurse's communication style and the patient's misinterpretation, which led to conflict and anxiety. The analysis emphasizes the importance of clear, attentive, and empathetic communication in healthcare settings to ensure accurate information exchange and positive patient outcomes. The presentation concludes by stressing the crucial role of effective communication skills for nurses to provide optimal patient care, emphasizing the need for careful and sensitive interactions to avoid misunderstandings and build trust.

Analyzing a communication process stated within a case study
Introduction-
Hello, I am Tarun and today I Will be presenting the communication process analysis of a
Case study presented to me. Communication is a very important aspect in terms of patient
care and the role of nurses to continue effective communication is also vital. From the given
case study, I will identify analyze the verbal and non-verbal communication occurred
between the patient, nurse, and the patient’s family. I will also categorize the communication
strategy, skills and approaches of each of the participants in the communication process. In
order to make this analysis more impactful, I will also prepare a SOAP note where I will
provide subjective, objective, assessment and planning for the case study. My observation
also contains SBAR approach of the case study where I will scrutinize the situation,
background, assessment and recommendation on the basis of the scenario.
Background-
Before getting into the detailed analysis of the case study, let us first give a look at the
necessity of communication in healthcare practice. Effective communication plays an
instrumental role throughout a patient’s entire healthcare experience, and a large portion of
the responsibility falls on nurses. Responsible for relaying information to a number of
individuals, nurses must be able to communicate clearly, especially during periods of intense
stress. Good written and verbal communication in nursing is invaluable to all involved. As
per a research conducted in 2014, it is found that a nurse who shows courtesy, kindness, and
security to her patients by her behavior and words, is more likely successful to build a good
camaraderie with her patients (Kourkouta & Papathanasiou, 2014). Good communication
between nurses and patients is helpful in many ways. Firstly, it helps a lot to provide
individual care and importance to every patient. When a nurse communicates with each of

her patients effectively, she becomes more knowledgeable about the unique challenges and
problems of her patients, which helps them to demonstrate their situation and symptoms
clearly to the doctor and to the family of the patients. On the other side, patients who
understand that their nurses are hearing their voice and concerns carefully, then they also feel
more relaxed and truly share their problems. Both sharing problems and being relaxed at the
time of medication are very important for patient care, and the role of communication is
deeply essential to maintain those two aspects. Effective communication help patients to stay
in a good mood and help nurses to know their patient better at the time of medication and
recovery.
Now, let us give a quick overview of the topics which we will discuss in this case study
analysis.
Overview-
The overview of the presentation will be based on the following 3 points
i) Deeply analyze the verbal and nonverbal communication occurred in the case study.
ii) SOAP Note (subjective, objective, assessment, plan)
iii) SBAR Approach (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation)
Communication Strategy-
Now we will move to the communication strategy, IT comprises of 4 persons
Sender- The son of the patient, Helena.
Concern- Whether Helena received the information that she could go home by the end of this
week or not.
Receiver- The Nurse

Context- Helena's son questioned the nurse why Helena was informed that she could go home
soon.
Post the communication strategy, we will start analyzing the communication methods used by
each of the participants in the communication process. So, let us start our first analysis with
the Nurse.
Analysis- The Nurse
i) The nurse seemed a little bit annoyed while talking to the patient's son
ii) The nurse was loud when talking to the patient.
iii) Non-verbal communication used in a bit arrogant way.
iv) Failed to build up effective communication with the patient and her family.
v) The nurse was not much attentive about the patient, which led her to misunderstand the
hearing problem of another patient with Helena.
Its time, we move to Helena’s Son
Helena’s Son
i) Seemed angry on the nurse for misleading information. (As Helena told her son that she
was informed by the nurse that she could go home this weekend.)
ii) Concerned about his mother’s health.
And finally Helena
Helena
i) Misunderstood the Nurse.

ii) Because of the lack of effective communication, confused about her staying at the old age
facility.
After analyzing the communication methods of each of the participants individually, I would
like to start the SOAP Note by giving subjective, objective, assessment and plan as per the
case study.
SOAP: (subjective, objective, assessment, plan)
S- The family of the patient (Son of Helena in this case) is arguing that why such information
was given to Helena that she would go to her home this weekend as she is improving. When
I attempted to explain that the information is not correct, the patient interrupted and stated
that she was informed twice (yesterday evening and today morning) about the information
and also had been praised for doing daily activities by her own. I stated clearly to the patient
and her family that there must be a misunderstanding of my words and I just praised the
patient for improving. I was a bit loud while talking to the patient as I thought she has a
hearing problem, which I checked later and found that she does not have any hearing issue.
The family of the patient, in this case, the son of Helena is also annoyed and tensed about her
mother's health and we had a tough conversation regarding Helena's health issue.
O- From the observation of the current situation, I can say that there is a misunderstanding
occurred. I just praised Helena for doing things on her own in order to increase her moral and
build her confidence. I had no intention to inform anything about her discharge from the old
age facility. But she totally misunderstood me and for that reason, her son went angry. I also
confused one other patient’s hearing deficit with Helena, for which I talked with her loudly,
which seemed arrogant and worsen the situation.
A- The patient, Helena is seemed to be improving. But as she is old and under mental trauma,
so it is quite natural for her to misunderstand others. She needs more observation and

treatment and for that reason, it is important for her health to be in the old age facility for
some more days. And I need to communicate with her more cautiously.
P- Taking proper care of Helena is very important in this situation and I need to build
effective communication in order to avoid misinterpretation. In spite of her
misunderstanding, I need to boost her morale and make sure that she understood me
accurately.
And now let us move to SBAR approach. Here we will discuss the situation, background,
assessment, and recommendation based on the basis of the case study.
SBAR: (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation)
S- Name- Mrs. Helena Gerzick. Age- 86. Sex- Female. Reason for admission- She was old
and had a mental trauma of her husband’s recent death. There was no one in her house to
look after her. She had been deemed unsafe to self-care and so, she was taken to the aged care
facility.
B- Mrs. Helena Gerzick is a Polish immigrant from the 1950s. Her husband died 7 months
ago, and she is still in shock. Currently, she is in an aged care facility in Toowoomba. She has
no one in her house to look after her.
A- Currently she needs proper assistance to do her daily activities and as she is depressed and
under the trauma of her husband’s death, so someone needs to talk to her and listen to her
while motivating her to come out from the trauma.
R- She needs more time and proper care to recover totally. Someone needs to help her in her
daily activities. Besides it, while communicating with her, a person needs to be careful
enough so that no misinterpretation of communication happens.

Conclusion:
Finally, I would like to conclude by stating the fact that,
Communication is one of the most important parts of Nursing Job. Nurses are the persons
who stay in close contact with patients. They take care of them and when doctors come to
visit, they explain the situation of the patient to the doctor. Communication with the patient is
important in order to know the current mental and physical situation of the patient (King &
Hoppe, 2013). Besides it, patients in the hospital have to spend a tuff time as they had to stay
far from their known people and home. So, being in a good mental condition is very
important for patients to be cured quickly. Nurses need to communicate with patients
properly to keep the patients in a good mood, which indirectly helps in medication. A good
nurse must need to develop an effective communication skill so that her patients receive
better care from her. As nurses act as the hub of communication, relaying and interpreting
information between physicians, caregivers, family members, and patients, so the ability to
establish effective communication in nursing is imperative to providing the best care and
patient outcomes possible.
Hope this presentation has clearly stated the importance of effective communication in
healthcare practice. Thank you so much for your time and attention.
References:
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of Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation into Nursing Practice: A

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Balzer-Riley, J. (2017). Communication in nursing (8th ed.). Elsevier.
King, A., & Hoppe, R. (2013). “Best Practice” for Patient-Centered Communication: A
Narrative Review. Journal Of Graduate Medical Education, 5(3), 385-393. doi:
10.4300/jgme-d-13-00072.1
Kourkouta, L., & Papathanasiou, I. (2014). Communication in Nursing Practice. Materia
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Roth, W., & Hsu, P. (2010). Analyzing communication. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense
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https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/principles-of-management/communication-
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