Bachelor of Nursing: Effective Communication in Healthcare

This essay delves into the critical role of effective communication in nursing, emphasizing its impact on patient care and overall healthcare outcomes. It explores various aspects of communication, including verbal and non-verbal techniques, and highlights the significance of therapeutic communication in building strong nurse-patient relationships. The essay discusses key concepts such as patient-centered care, the Peplau Theory of Interpersonal Relations, and the importance of cultural competence in communication. It also addresses potential barriers to effective communication, such as lack of privacy and noise, and the consequences of communication failures in healthcare settings. Furthermore, the essay underscores the significance of team communication and collaboration among healthcare professionals. By analyzing these components, the essay provides a comprehensive understanding of effective communication as a fundamental skill for nurses, ultimately contributing to improved patient satisfaction, adherence to treatment plans, and enhanced health outcomes. The essay also highlights the relevance of this skill in contemporary healthcare, where handoffs and interfaces among various healthcare providers are common.

Running head: ESSAY
Bachelor of Nursing
Name of the Student
Student Number
Name of the University
Author Note

1ESSAY
Introduction- The primary role of nursing professionals is to care for and advocate for
patients, regardless of their religious backgrounds or ethnic origins, while supporting them
through their illness and recovery. The role of nurses encompass recording medical history,
collaborating with team for planning care, monitoring patient health status, administering
medications, educating patients and providing them support (Kelly, Wills & Sykes, 2017). On
a single day, nurses have to interact with countless patients, family members and healthcare
personnel of diverse cultural, educational and social backgrounds, and this must be done in a
caring, professional and effective manner. Communication is generally defined as the
procedure that encompasses sharing of information by exchanging non-verbal and verbal
messages, and where individuals develop an association by cooperating with one another
(Ruesch et al., 2017). This essay will elucidate that effective communication is a fundamental
skill that must be present in all nurses in order to deliver quality care.
Effective communication in nursing- There is a growing body of evidence that
communication is a core component of nurse-patient association and also helps in the
delivery of compassionate and high-quality care for patients (Stockdale et al., 2018).
Effective communication has been identified to play a crucial role throughout the complete
healthcare experience of patients, in addition to the fact that major accountability falls on the
nursing professionals. Nursing staff are predominantly responsible for sharing information to
other healthcare personnel, the patients and key stakeholders, which requires them to be
proficient to communicate in a clear manner, particularly during stages of intense stress.
Nursing professionals are in possession of huge clinical expertise and medical knowledge.
However, their utmost challenge and probably the most important task is associated with
communication (Wittenberg et al., 2018). All stages of care delivery, commencing from
admission of patients till their release and beyond, require nurses to engage in effective
communication, while providing comprehensive care. Communication, if used in an

2ESSAY
appropriate manner will not only guarantee satisfaction amid patients but will also reduce the
likelihood of errors in care delivery, due to miscommunication or misinterpretation of
messages and their intended meanings (Nieuwboer et al., 2017).
The process of decoding messages is reliant on a range of factors and internal
insights. In other words, the interpretation by the receiver might not be in accordance to what
is explained by the sender. There is mounting evidence for the fact that in the nursing
profession, the nurses are bestowed with the responsibility of using their opinion and voices
for representing the opinions and preferences of the patients who are provided care, who
might not be able to advocate or speak for themselves (Davoodvand, Abbaszadeh & Ahmadi,
2016). According to research evidences, experienced nursing staff display an increased
likelihood of poor communication owing to the fact that they might have been accustomed to
a particular communication method, such that they are no longer familiar with the factors that
create an impact on their professional communication (Wilkinson, 2019).
It is a well-accepted fact that nursing students are required to develop their therapeutic
communication skills in order to enhance their future practice. Presence of small clinical
groups allow the students to participate in role play, which in turn helps them to gain a sound
understanding of the experiences of patients. According to Jasmine (2009) with the use of
cognitive concepts such as, relaxation methods, nursing students are able to gain a sound
understanding of the fact that anticipating catastrophe often reduces their performance
anxiety in challenging situations. One core component of therapeutic communication skill is
positive self-talk that helps nurses to challenge negative thinking. The researchers also
mentioned that high achievers in classroom generally become tongue tied, robotic, and
incapable of implementing their learning in clinical settings.

3ESSAY
In other words, effective usage of therapeutic communication facilitates the
development of nurse-patient association that encourages choice and accountability, gathers
cooperation and patient input, and enhances health outcomes, thus avoiding any litigious
confrontations (Rosenberg & Gallo-Silver, 2011). Effective communication is imperative to
patient centred care owing to the fact that it helps nurses to acknowledge patients as complete
person, their life history, medical history and social structure, with the aim of developing
shared understanding of the clinical issue, the purpose of treatment and the barriers to that
care plan (Stein-Parbury, 2017). According to Stockdale et al. (2018) effective
communication is not only associated to enhance patient satisfaction, but also increases
adherence of patients to clinical recommendations, thus improving health outcomes.
Furthermore, patients who are engaged in strong patient-centred nurse associations are more
probable to participate in self-care health management behaviours that decreases hospital
readmissions.
The importance of effective communication in nursing can be explained by Peplau
Theory Interpersonal Relations that describes nursing as the interpersonal procedure of
therapeutic interaction between an individual who is in distress or sick, with nursing staff
who are competent to identify and respond to the needs of the former (Deane & Fain, 2016).
According to Peplau, the shared objective in nursing is to encourage the therapeutic process
where both nurses and patients demonstrate respect towards one another, besides growing
and developing as a result of communication. In other words, the theory highlights that the
objective of nursing is to provide assistance to others to recognise their challenges, while
implementing human relations principle for all problems that arise during care delivery (Fite
et al., 2019). Relevance of this theory can be associated to the fact that it leads to the
establishment of a communication guide that advances the efficacy of nurse-patient relational

4ESSAY
association, thus envisaging nursing as a continuing collaborating and cooperative procedure
between nurses and patients (Hosieni, Ravari & Akbari, 2017).
In the words of Bramhall (2014) effective communication in nursing is not
unidirectional, rather occurs in the form of a two-way dialogue between the nurses and
patients, where both converse and listen to the other, while asking clarifying opinion and
interchanging information. Nurses generally use medical terms for conveying information to
other healthcare professionals. However, while interacting with patients, these terms might
appear as jargons to them (Bourgeois & Van der Riet, 2018). This calls for the need of
engaging in effective communication where the nurses use non-verbal skills in order to
interact with patients, while explaining them about the plan of care.
Playing the role of active listener, displaying compassion, educating the patients, and
using appropriate gestures, facial expression, movement and body posture are core aspects of
non-verbal communication that helps in efficient care delivery. Verbal communication skills
used by nurses commonly encompass written communication and exchange of information
with the use of speech. Choice of words and voice tone play an important role in this
communication (Sibiya, 2018). Communication with patients and coworkers might often
become challenging to nurses, when the former converse in their local languages, intonations,
and dialect, thus adding to complexity of the situation. Therefore, non-verbal communication
is directly associated with cultural competence that allows nurses to interact in a manner that
is in alignment with the values, beliefs, linguistic preferences, and backgrounds of others
(Bahreman & Swoboda, 2016).
As claimed by Jeong and Kim (2017) empathy is a realistic approach that helps nurses
to demonstrate that they care and appreciate the patient experiences, while the latter cope
with their illness, diagnosis and treatments. The aspiration to provide assistance or lessen

5ESSAY
distress generally controls the opinions and emotional state of nursing professionals, and a
display of empathy typically helps them to provide comfort and support to those who are in
distress, facing anxiety, or are vulnerable. The researchers also highlighted that some
common barriers to effective communication in nursing are lack of privacy, noise, breaking
down or crying, and lack of usage of emotional language for explaining the feelings. Thus,
presence of a conscious awareness about the barriers to effective communication will help the
nurses to deliver care in a more comprehensive manner (Bramhall, 2014).
In the contemporary healthcare system, delivery of care involves a range of patient
handoffs and interfaces amid numerous healthcare providers with diverse occupational and
educational training. Non-existence of effective communication during handoff results in
medical errors that have the potential of generating unexpected patient death or even severe
injury. It has often been found that communication failures in nursing are the major reason
behind sentinel events, delay in treatment, fatal falls, or incorrect site injuries (Alert, 2017).
Effective team communication in nursing is characterised by respect, collaboration and trust.
Though there are several barriers to teamwork like loss of autonomy, lack of awareness about
the health scenario, territorialism, and lack of confidence on others, most of them can be
overcome with open communication. Despite the fact that nurses and doctors interact
frequently, they habitually have diverse discernments of their roles and accountabilities as to
patient demands, and therefore have dissimilar objectives for patient care. Furthermore,
nurses who observe poor peer performance or resistance during change management are often
reluctant to speak up owing to fear of retribution or the notion that speaking up will lead to
conflict (Fors, 2017).
Conclusion- Thus, presence of effective communication skills not only allows nurses
to express their concerns but also helps them assist healthcare personnel while taking actions
and making decisions. Group and team communication helps in care coordination and

6ESSAY
decreases the stress that the patients might be subjected to, thereby positively affecting their
health outcomes. Not only does team communication decrease issues of burnout amid nurses
but also enhances patient safety, increases efficiency and augments clinical performance. At
times the patients demonstrate failure to comprehend, remember or understand most nurse’s
instructions, thus leading to reduced compliance and obedience to the recommended
treatment. As discussed above, maximum medical malpractice claims encompass some kind
of miscommunication or interaction breakdown between the patients and nurses. Therefore,
nurses who spend adequate time in understanding the inimitable challenges and
apprehensions of their patients demonstrate better skills for advocating on behalf of the
patients, thereby successfully addressing the clinical issues that arise.

7ESSAY
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8ESSAY
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9ESSAY
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