Enhancing Healthcare through Effective Nurse-Patient Communication

This essay discusses the importance of effective communication in nursing, drawing from a peer-reviewed article that examines feedback on nursing communication skills during interactions with simulated patients. The study uses an exploratory design involving interviews, written notes, and focus groups to investigate perceptions of nurse-patient communication. Key themes identified include manner, approach, and communication techniques, with an emphasis on both verbal and nonverbal cues. The findings highlight the role of communication in patient safety, well-being, and reducing medical errors. The essay expands on these insights using learning resources, emphasizing the development of therapeutic relationships and patient-centered care. It also acknowledges the limitations of the study, such as the limited number of videos used, and suggests that negative emotions can hinder effective communication. Access the full essay and more study resources on Desklib.

Running head: HEALTH CARE
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Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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The paper that has been chosen for the discussion is related to effective communication in
patients. This paper was obtained by accessing the EBSCO host data base of the Walden library.
Boolean terms like Communication AND Nursing AND Simulated patient. Peer reviewed,
English articles within the years 2013- 2019 were included in the search.
Characteristics of Peer reviewed journal
This journal is a peer reviewed journal as the impact factor of this journal is found to be
greater than 1, the study design involved individual interview, focus groups and written notes
from the participants. The article has also been reviewed by the author's peers before the
publication.
Summarize the article and its finding
The aim of this study is to examine the feedback provided by the nurse educators and the
clinicians on the nursing communication skills during the interaction with the simulated patients.
The main rationale for conducting this research is that the quality of communication occurring
between the nurses and the client have profound impact on clinical outcomes. Lack of proper
interaction increases the rate of medical errors (Sally et al., 2014). Being a participant, the nurses
who are communicating or are participating in the interaction might not be able to self-regulate
or self-report on their performances due to lack of self-awareness. In order to understand the
quality of the communication, an exploratory design was used that consisted of individual
interviews, written notes from the participant and focus groups and field notes of the researcher
for investigating the perception on patient-nurse communication. The interview and the focus

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group was held between the years August 2010 to Sept 2011. 15 nurse educators and clinicians
were chosen as to observe the videos of the nurse and simulated patient communication. The
respondents were asked to give the feedback, orally, on the content and the quality of
communication. Verbatim transcription of all the collected data were made. Transcription of the
hand written points and the field notes were done followed by a thematic analysis. The main
theme that has been identified are- manner, approach, techniques in communication and
interaction. The feedback that were coded as communication contained concerns where the
participants has referred to both verbal and the nonverbal communications. The respondents
referred to the qualities like eye contact, body language, touch and the proximity of the nurse
with the patient, touch and management of space.
The finding has been successful in giving a new insight into the nurse patient
communication as the approach of receiving the feedback from video interaction other than live
interactions has elucidated the viewpoint of the nurses.
The limitations for this study were- Only few videos were used to show the focus groups
that would generally not represent the overall array of communication skills and the behaviors
occurring between a nurse and a patient. Due to this, the findings might not be applicable to
other health care settings.
Role of this article in expanding knowledge related to communication
Communication is nursing is important to patient safety, wellbeing and health. Since
nurses are at the center of the patient care, they should strengthen on their communication skills.
Poor communication has been held responsible for any nurse malpractices, medical breach and
medical errors (Watson, 2015).

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This study provides an insight to the communication process between the nurses and the
patients. The study can aid to understand the importance of non –verbal communication besides
verbal communication in understanding the grievances of the patient. Nonverbal communication
cues such as facial grimacing, expressions and body language are effective while handling
pediatric and geriatric patients (Kourkouta & Papathanasiou, 2014). It can be understood that
negative emotions of the nurses are the detrimental factor for an effective communication.
Expand on your insights utilizing the Learning Resources
The learning resources have always helped to identify all the aspects common in health
care fields. Communication had always been an important topic of research and discussion due
to its impact in the provision of a patient centered care. It should be mentioned that the patient
are always on the vulnerable sight and are in need of health care facilities, hence they should be
effectively communicated with to understand their needs. Hemsley, Balandin and Worrall
(2012) have stated that effective communication helps in the development of a therapeutic
relationship that facilitates a patient centered care, less medical errors and less malpractices. It
also helps the patient to remain adhered to the treatment regimen.

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References
Hemsley, B., Balandin, S., & Worrall, L. (2012). Nursing the patient with complex
communication needs: time as a barrier and a facilitator to successful communication in
hospital. Journal of advanced nursing, 68(1), 116-126.
Kourkouta, L., & Papathanasiou, I. V. (2014). Communication in nursing practice. Materia
socio-medica, 26(1), 65.
Sally, O., Elizabeth, M., Catherine, E., John, P., Robyn, W.-K., Tim, M., … Geoff, M. (2014).
What counts as effective communication in nursing? Evidence from nurse educatorsʼ and
cliniciansʼ feedback on nurse interactions with simulated patients. Journal of Advanced
Nursing, (6), 1344. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1111/jan.12296
Watson, J. (2015). Responsible, Assertive, Caring Communication in Nursing. Communication
in Nursing-E-Book, 1.