Promoting Therapeutic Relationships: Nurse-Patient Communication Essay

This essay examines the critical role of effective nurse-patient communication in promoting therapeutic relationships and ensuring patient safety. It emphasizes the importance of verbal and non-verbal communication skills in building rapport and gathering patient information, including detail...Read More

Running head: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION IN NURSING
NURSE-PATIENT COMMUNICATION
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1NURSE-PATIENT COMMUNICATION
An effective health outcome will be achieved if there is an efficient relationship
between nursing professionals and patients. Communication is the major key element that
would enhance and generate a therapeutic relationship among the care provider and care
seeker (Riley, 2015). An effective relationship would also benefit from promoting and
providing patient safety. The therapeutic relationship would also increase engagement among
the healthcare provider and care seeker. This essay intends to examine the effectiveness of a
therapeutic relationship among the nursing profession and patient in promoting the optimal
health outcome and patient safety.
Verbal, as well as non-verbal communication are the two major kinds of
communication skill. It has been found that the nursing staff who have an effective practice
of kindness and courtesy in the communication are more successful in building relationship
and rapport with the patient (Riley, 2015). Nurses are the frontline care provider, and
therefore, verbal communication is an efficient approach for understanding the basic
information of the patient such as personnel details, previous medical condition and other
health-related queries. Good verbal communication would help in clear transferring of
information among the patient and their families about the intervention or process of
treatment. Thus, the tone should be clear and encouraging with courteous that would allow
the patient to engage in the conversation by providing additional information. Alternatively,
non-verbal communication would include body gesture that would enhance effective
communication. Effective non-verbal communication would lead to the interest and
engagement of the patient. Thus, it includes body postures, eye contact, facial expression and
a light touch for conveying the affection of care towards the patient (Burgoon, Guerrero &
Floyd, 2016).
An overall communication such as active listening, open-ended question to the
patients, paraphrasing the statement, reflecting and acknowledging would lead in building a

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therapeutic relationship between nurses and patient (Levett-Jones, 2020). Person-centred care
is an effective care model, where the service would be provided according to the patients’
needs and demand. The service would be tailored rather than general delivery of care. It has
been found that the adoption and practice of person-centred care have increased the optimal
overall health outcome (Hill et al., 2017). Thus, effective communication would help in
effective implementation of person-centred care model along with assist in adopting the
effective documentation (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2017). Documentation
is a written recording of every intervention that the patient is undergoing along with the
sequence of processes of treatment. It also includes the personnel details of the patient with
the previous medical history and other health-related matters such as behaviour or lifestyle of
the patient. The major benefits of the documentation would be a clear exchange of patient’s
information among the care providers and would also need in any future research and
education purpose (N.S.W, 2016).
For this essay, considering the scenario one for the assignment, where the name of the
patient is George Pham. He had visited for improving his health and improve the present
lifestyle. He had a stressful lifestyle and had a cough that was constant from the past five
weeks. Nursing staff with effective communication with the patient has documented the
relevant and basic information of the patient such as weight, height and temperature of the
room along with heart rate and respiratory rate. Since the patient had a cough for a longer
time, the nursing staff had implemented more effective communication with the patient to
understand the lifestyle and behaviour and about his family background. The patient started
engaging with the nurse and provided efficiently and details information about his personnel
life and lifestyle. It was found that patient smoke 20 cigarette each day for forty-two years.
Besides, he also takes alcohol every night with the evening meal. Another unhealthy
behaviour was eating from the restaurant daily. All these behaviour and habit of lifestyle

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would lead to severe health consequences. However, he was a family-oriented person who
would inspire the family for a meal for any opportunity. All this information has derived from
effective verbal and non-verbal communication and needed to be documented. In this
scenario, the nursing staff had actively listened to the patient and provided multiple open-
handed questions that have increased the opportunity for the patient for providing detailed
information about the existing and current behaviour. In addition to this, the nursing staff had
also documented every detail about the patient’s health condition and necessary intervention
(Western Sydney university, 2019).
For providing person-centred care to George, it is necessary to understand the needs
and demand of George. Since the patient is having continual cough and wants to enhance a
positive change in the lifestyle, he would need to have continual monitoring on the intake of
the alcohol and need to reduce the smoke. Thus, person-centred care should focus on the
behaviour change of the patient. Effective training can be provided for bringing positive
change in the lifestyle. The training would include both hands-on along with theoretical
knowledge, which would include the effective procedures of reducing alcohol and reducing
the habit of smoking. Another intervention can be effective medication management to the
patient, such as providing supplement when they seek for alcohol or cigarette (Zerwekh &
Garneau, 2017). Thus, every measures and implementation were under the person-centred
care and would assist in bringing a positive impact on the lifestyle of George.
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that effective communication is a very
important element that would enhance rapport with the patient. It would also lead therapeutic
relationship among nurse and patient. The communication, including both verbal and non-
verbal not only restrict in building engagement with the patient, however, it also assist in
implementing the person-centred care model along with the effective documentation with
relevant information about the patient. George visiting the registered nurse for improving his

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lifestyle, had effective communication with the care provider. The care provider or nursing
professional has effectively communicated for understanding the family background, culture,
lifestyle and daily activities of the patient for delivering person-centred care.

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References
Burgoon, J. K., Guerrero, L. K., & Floyd, K. (2016). Nonverbal communication. Routledge.
Hill, R., Hill, H., & Glew P. (Eds.). (2017). Fundamentals of nursing and midwifery: A
person centred approach to care. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Levett-Jones, T, (Ed.). (2020). Critical Conversations for Patient Safety: An essential Guide
for Health Students, Pearson Australia.
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. (2017). Standards for practice: Registered
nurses. Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. Retrieved 18 April 2020, from
https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Search.aspx?q=therapeutic+relationship.
Riley, J. B. (2015). Communication in nursing. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Western Sydney university. (2019). Professional Communication in Nursing 2019: History
for Nurse and Patient Interaction – Health Assessment (pp. 1-3). Retrieved 18 April
2020, from.
Zerwekh, J., & Garneau, A. Z. (2017). Nursing Today-E-Book: Transition and Trends.
Elsevier Health Sciences.