University Nursing: Communication Technology in Healthcare

This essay explores the crucial role of communication technology in professional nursing, emphasizing its impact on patient care and the evolution of healthcare practices. It highlights the importance of effective communication, encompassing both verbal and non-verbal forms, and how technological advancements have facilitated information exchange between nurses and patients, as well as among healthcare professionals. The essay delves into the significance of listening and speaking skills, ethical considerations, and the benefits of technology in improving the efficiency and quality of healthcare services. It also addresses potential barriers and challenges, such as language and cost barriers, while concluding that communication technology is integral to modern nursing, enhancing accessibility and promoting better patient outcomes. The essay references several sources to support its claims, underscoring the importance of professional communication in the healthcare field.

Running Head: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR NURSES 1
Communication Technology in Nursing
Student’s Name
University’s Name

PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR NURSES 2
Professional Communication for Nurses
Introduction
Effective communication involves the transfer of information from one person to another,
through the right. Both the communicator and the recipient play a great role in facilitating
effective communication process and in enhancing proper understanding of messages. Poor
interpretation of messages may be a great cause of communication failure (Markov & Hazan,
2012). In nursing, communication involves the exchange of messages between two or more
individuals. Communication takes various forms such as written communication which takes
such forms as text messages and letters, verbal communication where individuals directly and
actively engage in the communication process through the word of mouth, and other non-verbal
communication such as the use of signals to convey messages. Communication in nursing
practices mostly involves nurses and their direct patients and professional skills are of paramount
importance in nurturing a conducive nurse/patient relationship. The current advancement and
continued evolution of technology have played a great role in facilitating effective
communication in the nursing field.
Most communication practices in nursing involve the exchange of information from
patients to nurses and vice versa. Patients receive information from patients in matters regarding
their signs and symptoms. They are able to describe how they feel and the changes perceived in
their bodies after taking certain medications (Wittenberg-Lyles, 2013). This helps nurses to make

PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR NURSES 3
critical decisions about the diagnosis of the patients, as well as the effectiveness of treatment
methods as received by the patient from the nurse. Nurses on the other hand share information
with their patients about their treatment methods, dosage prescriptions as well as any
precautionary measures that need to be taken into consideration during the treatment period.
Other information that nurses may share with their patients may include ways of preventing any
related future attacks.
Professional communication in nursing, in general, is very delicate yet critical at the same
time. Effective delivery of healthcare and nurse’s services highly depends on professional
communication. Examples of nursing areas where communication is highly applied and therefore
professionalism in communication highly needed include treatment areas, health promotions,
therapy wards, rehabilitation centres, among others. Communication technology in nursing has
improved the quality of patient care and also provided a way where health practitioners and
patients can be easily educated. The overall nursing exercise is mainly achieved through
successful series of dialogues between the nurses and the victims. Professional communication,
assisted by the communication technology, enhances nurses with communication skills that
display high levels of courtesy, honesty and kindness. Moreover, it enables nurses to successfully
communicate with people related to patients such as family members taking care of the patient
Professional communication systems are mainly defined by an organization’s culture and
codes of ethics. However, effective transfer of communication as needed are supposed to be
simple and clear and where written communication applies, the language used is recommended
to be formal language that is easy and free from ambiguous and contradicting terms, words and
phrases. The key importance of the whole communication process is to facilitate the patient’s

PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR NURSES 4
understanding of various aspects as they might be addressed in the communication
(Mastrototaro, 2015). As a result, communication is termed as ineffective when the patient or
any other targeted recipient is not able to interpret the messages conceived in the information and
or interprets such messages wrongly thus deriving an incorrect interpretation. Professional
communication in nursing basically helps in the expression of messages with simple and clear
languages that recipients can comprehend easily. This, in turn, enhances quality communication.
Listening skills are very essential in the nursing career. Nurses are required to obtain
information from their patients, most of which relate to the symptoms experienced by the
patients and interpret such information to come up with a constructive edge from which they
base their treatment and diagnosis processes (Raphael-Grimm & Zuccarini). The evolution of
mobile phones enables nurses to hear from patients who might be receiving medical care from
their homes, thus facilitating quality care to such patients. Listening skills enable nurses to get
the actual and correct information as communicated to them by patients, which in turn enables
them to interpret the communicated information correctly, therefore providing a clear basis for
treatment (Sarnikar, Bennett & Gaynor, 2013). When nurses fail to listen effectively, they tend to
obtain the incorrect information and in turn make wrong interpretations in relation to patient’s
requirements. Treatment of the wrong diagnosis as attributed by wrong interpretation of
information between nurses and patients has been a cause for more health complications and
even deaths at the worst scenarios (Fagerström, Tuvesson, Axelsson & Nilsson, 2017).
Professional listening skills as facilitated by professional communication processes are therefore
of paramount necessity if proper treatment methods are to be achieved.

PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR NURSES 5
Apart from listening skills, nurses also need to be equipped with strong and quality
speaking skills as they are required in their field every day. While nurses interact with numbers
of patients every minute, they also interact largely with numbers of health care professionals and
providers in different nursing fields. Communication technology today enables nurses to speak
and give directions to patients even in their physical absence. While interacting with patients,
speaking skills assist nurses to effectively and successfully convey critical messages with clarity
and simplicity (Blake, 2008). Patients may come from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds
and whatever the matter, nurses are required to speak to them, inquire them about their problems
and as well help them out where they can. Moreover, patients interact with patients suffering
from various ailments such as hearing problems. They are therefore required to be audible
enough, especially when communicating through modern technological methods of
communication such as mobile phones (Gartee & Beal, 2012). Professional communication skills
help nurses to be effective in the overall communication process between them and their patients.
Healthcare professionals and providers work together with nurses and assist in the
provision of various critical services such as preventive services, curative services as well as
rehabilitative services. Nurses communicate with these healthcare practitioners and inform them
about the symptoms persisting in patients, as well as any other critical information that might be
required to be shared between and among them. Nurses use various communication methods, as
enabled by the technology such as mobile devices, to communicate with healthcare professionals
where need be. When communicating with these practitioners, nurses are required to be brief yet
detailed, conveying any necessary information that might be required, while still filtering that
information that is not necessarily critical and does not need to be communicated (Mastrototaro,

PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR NURSES 6
2015). The current technological communication methods help to save time especially during
cases of emergency such as accidents (Markov & Hazan, 2012). Nurses are required to be
honest, conveying only the truthful information that will be used in the treatment of the patients.
The briefness helps to clear out the important points from the whole collection of information as
they might have collected it from patients.
Good personal attributes and relationships in the nursing field are described as the overall
nurse’s ability to inquire information through questions with moral virtues such as kindness,
courtesy and honesty (Peate & Peate, 2012). Nurses are not supposed to ask questions or even
communicate with their patients with kind words that do not scare away the patients. Despite the
fact that the nurses are able to communicate with patients even without physically availing
themselves, they are recommended to uphold their personal interpersonal skills such as courtesy
when communicating with the patients (Stein-Parbury, 2017). They should be considerate about
the psychological conditions of their patients and should actually be an active source of hope to
such patients. They should avoid abusive languages and find better ways to maneuver around
sensitive topics and discussions without making the patients feel humiliated or negatively
affected. They should be sensitive in their choice of language as this might be a major cause of
despair to the patients. When patients ask them sensitive questions about their conditions, they
should offer positive answers even when such health statuses seem to be escalating and
worsening. This helps to give the patients some hope about life and also boost their recovery
potentials.
Communication technology in nursing encourages nurses to observe ethical values and
codes as stated in their organizations. Among the most common ethical issues in nursing, fields

PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR NURSES 7
include honesty and truth-telling. Nurses are expected to share the exact and truthful results
relating to patients’ health statuses, especially with their family members as they may inquire.
Additionally, nurses should always uphold the confidentiality of the highest level and should
never disclose the patient’s personal information to any third parties who may not be directly
concerned with the health and personal lives of such patients (McDaniel, 2009). Nurses should
also observe the ethical issue of obtaining an informed consent from the direct patient or any
related member before carrying out medical procedures unless such a patient is incapacitated.
Communication technology in professional nursing communications faces barriers such
as personal barriers which may include language barriers between the nurse and the patient as
well as cost barriers where the information technology methods and devices used may be
expensive to afford and install. Other implications of communication technology in nursing
include the decreased efficiency in communication processes. Non-verbal communication
compliments communication especially in nursing where nurses are supposed to observe the
physical signs and symptoms as displayed by their patients (Markov & Hazan, 2012). Most
communication technology methods do not account for the necessity of physical contact between
the nurses and the patients.
In conclusion, just as communication plays an important role in our lives, communication
technology in professional communication for nurses plays a very critical role in the nursing
field. The quality of communication directly influences the quality of medical services that
nurses offer in health centres (Kraszewski & McEwen, 2010). Communication technology in
nursing has greatly improved the quality of services offered by nurses especially by making
communication more accessible and readily available. Communication skills such as listening

PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR NURSES 8
and speaking skills enable nurses to communicate effectively with their parties. The total
efficiency of services offered by health officers has been improved by communication
technology. Patients do not longer need to make frequent visits to the hospitals to receive some
little directions like it was before (Blake, 2008). Communication technology in professional
communication has, therefore, facilitated the provision of quality healthcare services to patients.

PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR NURSES 9
References
Blake, H. (2008). Mobile phone technology in chronic disease management. Nursing Standard
(through 2013), 23(12), 43.
Fagerström, C., Tuvesson, H., Axelsson, L., & Nilsson, L. (2017). The role of ICT in nursing
practice: an integrative literature review of the Swedish context. Scandinavian journal of
caring sciences, 31(3), 434-448.
Gartee, R., & Beal, S. (2012). Electronic health records and nursing. Upper Saddle River, N.J.:
Pearson, 153-276.
Kraszewski, S., & McEwen, A. (2010). Communication skills for adult nurses. Maidenhead:
Open University Press, 45-78.
Markov, M., & Hazan, A. (2012). Advances in Communication Technology: Implications for
New Nursing Skills. Journal Of Pediatric Nursing, 27(5), 591-593. doi:
10.1016/j.pedn.2012.07.004
Mastrototaro, A. (2015). The Art of Communication in Nursing and Health Care. Issues In
Mental Health Nursing, 36(7), 566-566. doi: 10.3109/01612840.2015.1053773
McDaniel, J. (2009). Advances in Information Technology and Communication in Health.
Amsterdam: IOS Press, 45-133.
Peate, I., & Peate, I. (2012). The student's guide to becoming a nurse. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-
Blackwell (pp. 45-184).

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Raphael-Grimm, T., & In Zuccarini, M. (2015). The art of communication in nursing and health
care: An interdisciplinary approach, 86-311.
Sarnikar, S., Bennett, D., & Gaynor, M. (2013). Cases on healthcare information technology for
patient care management. Hershey, PA: Medical Information Science Reference, (pp. 63-
247).
Stein-Parbury, J. (2017).Patient and person: Interpersonal skills in nursing, (pp. 52-177).
Wittenberg-Lyles, E. (2013). Communication in palliative nursing. New York, N.Y.: Oxford
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