Effective Communication in Nursing: A Detailed Discussion Reply

This is a discussion reply emphasizing the importance of effective communication in nursing, particularly in understanding patient needs, preferences, and beliefs. It highlights the American Nurses Association's emphasis on communication skills, including adjusting communication to the patient's level of understanding, practicing cultural competence, and treating every patient with respect and dignity. The reply references studies that underscore the need for nurses to use simple terms, listen empathetically, and be culturally sensitive to diverse patient needs, ensuring appropriate nursing autonomy in ethical conflicts between patient beliefs and clinical practice. The document is available on Desklib, a platform offering study tools for students.

Running head: REPLY TO DISCUSSION
REPLY TO DISCUSSION
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1REPLY TO DISCUSSION
Communication is essential in nursing, especially during the identification of the unique
needs, preferences and beliefs of the patient. The American Nurses Association, in addition to
performance of effective clinical nursing practice, exemplarily necessitates the need for nursing
conductance of effective communication skills (Dy et al., 2015).
One of the key communication skills reflected in the discussion, as well as researched by
Mulder et al., (2015), is the need for nurses to adjust their communication as per the patient’s
level of understanding. The medical world is wrought with complex clinical terms coupled with
the recent adherence to technology for diagnosis and documentation. Hence, it is the duty of the
nurse to explain clinical procedures to the patient using simple terms along with patient and
empathetic listening, in order to clarify patient’s doubts and enhance patient’s level of comfort.
The next essential communication skill necessary for nurses to practice is cultural
competence and dissemination of culturally appropriate care. Nurses will encounter patients
hailing from a variety of diverse races, religions and cultures and in possession of diverse beliefs
and practices. Hence, nurses must be culturally sensitive to recognize, respect, understand,
empathize and listen to such diverse patient needs and exercise appropriate nursing autonomy
during situations of ethical conflict between patient beliefs and clinical practice (Almutairi,
McCarthy & Gardner, 2015).
Lastly, every patient, irrespective of their age, gender or race, deserves to be treated with
respect and dignity, which nurses must consider during conductance of nursing-patient
communication and professional relationships (Banerjee et al., 2016).

2REPLY TO DISCUSSION
References
Almutairi, A. F., McCarthy, A., & Gardner, G. E. (2015). Understanding cultural competence in
a multicultural nursing workforce: Registered nurses’ experience in Saudi
Arabia. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 26(1), 16-23.
Banerjee, S. C., Manna, R., Coyle, N., Shen, M. J., Pehrson, C., Zaider, T., ... & Bylund, C. L.
(2016). Oncology nurses' communication challenges with patients and families: a
qualitative study. Nurse education in practice, 16(1), 193-201.
Dy, S. M., Kiley, K. B., Ast, K., Lupu, D., Norton, S. A., McMillan, S. C., ... & Casarett, D. J.
(2015). Measuring what matters: top-ranked quality indicators for hospice and palliative
care from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and Hospice and
Palliative Nurses Association. Journal of pain and symptom management, 49(4), 773-
781.
Mulder, B. C., Lokhorst, A. M., Rutten, G. E., & van Woerkum, C. M. (2015). Effective nurse
communication with type 2 diabetes patients: a review. Western Journal of Nursing
Research, 37(8), 1100-1131.